Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah Valley University

Conservative political activist, Charlie Kirk was killed after being shot during a Utah Valley University campus event on September 10th.

Keith Allred, Executive Director at the University of Arizona’s National Institute for Civil Discourse, joined “Arizona Horizon” to provide more insight into the ongoing investigation.

“We’ve seen a bit of a rising tide, in political violence,” Allred said, “…it’s a terrible reflection on the current state of our politics.”

At 18 Kirk Founded, Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses.

“…he was really a champion of free speech and discourse,” Allred explained, “…was really providing a service by going to college campuses…to have an honest exchange of ideas.”

Kirk advocated for civil discourse and healthy debates among those that may disagree with his views. The slogan “prove me wrong,” became a popular term to help promote healthy conversations among those that have differing ideologies.

“…that’s the attitude we should have is that we’ve got our differences lets engage each other,” Allred said, “…but we’ve got to do it constructively.”

The core of Turning Point USA was to encourage students to think and speak freely, as many people on college campuses had the notion that conservative views were not welcome.

“His answer to that is the answer that we should all have is more free speech,” Allred explained, “…i’m going to go to college campuses and make my case…and engage each other as we should in a democracy.”

There has been lots of political tension lately, including the rise of political violence from both sides of the spectrum.

“I just think it’s critical, that the rest of us stand up and express ourselves to condemn it,” Allred said, “…we all need to be part of that…that those acts don’t represent us and we are better than that.”