A year after Charlie Kirk’s death, almost 1 in 3 students say violence can be used to stop campus speakers

Nearly one-third of U.S. college students say violence can be acceptable against a campus speaker exactly a year after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, according to a new survey.

Of the 63,000 students polled, 30 percent said that using violence to prevent someone from speaking on campus is “acceptable, at least in rare cases,” according to a report released Wednesday by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

While the percentage of students finding violence acceptable is down 4 points from last year, it still represents a 10-point increase from four years ago.

The survey also found 69 percent of students said it is OK to shut a speaker down by shouting — down 3 points from last year but up 7 points from four years ago.

Colleges have faced an increasingly fraught landscape in recent years over free speech and campus violence, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the shooting of Kirk itself.

FIRE found 50 percent of students said it is difficult to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has roiled campuses for years, with protesters shouting and disrupting events and the Trump administration targeting pro-Palestinian foreign students for deportation.

Students said the second most difficult topic to discuss was President Trump at 46 percent, with Kirk coming in third at 44 percent.

After the Kirk shooting, some professors were reprimanded or fired for remarks seen as celebrating his death, though several have since received compensation in court for free speech violations.

Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Kirk, is holding an event in his honor Thursday at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.