Speech writer Reagan warns against growing political violence after Kirk’s death

The assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk reports a new disturbing chapter of American political violence, said the former editor of speech Reagan, Peggy Noonan.

Kirk, 31, died after being killed in the neck during his “American tour” at the University of Utah Valley on Wednesday. The assassination occurs a year after two attempts to take the life of the president.

“We like to say that something has happened gradually, then suddenly,” wrote Noonan in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “It is” The Sun also Rises “by Ernest Hemingway: a character, asked how he went bankrupt, said:” In two ways, gradually, then sudden. “This is how political violence in America has increased during this century.

Charlie Kirk warned that “the assassination culture is spreading on the left” strange line of the months before the murder

Kimberly Atkins Stohr, main opinion writer of Boston Globe, and Peggy Noonan, columnist of the Wall Street Journal, appear on “Meet the Press” in Washington DC, Sunday January 7, 2024. (William B. Plowman / NBC via Getty Images)

“We know that it cannot continue and we do not know how to stop it,” wrote Noonan. “This is our difficult situation.”

Noonan, now a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, previously been editor -in -chief of Ronald Reagan of former predictor Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986.

Kirk’s assassination is one of the multiple examples of political violence – or attempted political violence.

For example, the 20 -year -old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump on a roof during a campaign rally in July 2024, and one of the eight bullets that grazed Trump’s ear. The shooter also shot Corey Comperatore, a 50 -year -old firefighter, father and husband who attended the rally, and injured two others.

Charlie Kirk was “fearless” to participate in the Utah event where he was murdered, said a friend

The presidential candidate of the time, Donald Trump, pumps his fist while he was rushed over the secret service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images / Anna Moneymaker)

Likewise, Ryan Routh was apprehended and accused of having tried to assassinate Trump in his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024. Roth was accused of attempted assassination of a large presidential candidate, among others, and his trial is currently underway.

Other cases include an assassination plot against the judge of the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh. Nicholas John Roske, 29, pleaded guilty in April to have tried to kill Kavanaugh in June 2022, according to the Ministry of Justice.

The murder of Charlie Kirk is the last by increasing political violence on a national level, of the Governor of the AP in Scotus

Charlie Kirk speaks at the University of Utah Valley on September 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah, before the assassination. (Trent Nelson / The Salt Lake Tribune / Getty Images)

Trump said on “Fox & Friends” on Friday that an arrest was made in Kirk’s assassination, and UTAH officials confirmed the suspect as Tyler Robinson, 22.

“I hope he will be convicted, I imagine. And I hope he will get the death penalty,” Trump said on Friday. “What he did, Charlie Kirk was the most beautiful person, he didn’t deserve it. He worked so hard and so well. Everyone loved him.”