Next Thursday, conservative activist and national radio host Charlie Kirk was scheduled to speak at Colorado State University in Fort Collins as part of his “American Comeback Tour.”

Tragically, he won’t be making it. On Wednesday, the 31-year-old political influencer was assassinated by a single gunshot to the carotid artery while speaking outdoors at Utah Valley University.

Kirk was perhaps singlehandedly responsible for engaging more conservative students in activism than anyone. He could be provocative, but he always embraced public debate with just about anyone.

That’s why he was returning to CSU — to engage with people across the spectrum in the battle of ideas. Agree with him or not, that’s what college campuses are supposed to be about.

Instead, he was gunned down in cold blood while answering a question about mass shootings.

I knew Charlie Kirk. I’ve seen the video. I wish I hadn’t.

Fourteen minutes later, a student shot two others at Evergreen High School here in Colorado. One shooter dead. Two hospitalized. Another day of horror on American campuses, one more that is far too many.

Let’s be real: Wednesday’s dual tragedies symbolize the coarsening of American culture and the venomous hatred coursing through far too many veins. Why do students think it’s acceptable to bring a gun to school, let alone shoot classmates? What drives one person to assassinate another?

As a columnist and radio host who takes on controversial issues and prominent politicians, that second question hit home. I’ve received threats, just as public officials and election workers have. Who might act on such threats? Against whom? Where and when? After this week, those questions feel terrifyingly real.

Political violence is no longer rare. Just in the past year, a former president survived multiple assassination attempts, including a bullet grazing his ear as he spoke outdoors — while firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed shielding his wife and daughter. Minnesota’s Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated.

Pipe bombs were planted at both Republican and Democratic party headquarters. UnitedHealth’s CEO was murdered. On Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, illegal immigrant Mohamed Sabry Soliman firebombed a peaceful demonstration for Jewish hostages held by Hamas.

We now live in a society where political assassinations and executions can happen anywhere — in your home, on the street or while giving a speech to students.

As troubling as the violence itself has been, the poisonous responses are even more corrosive

Mangione has been glorified with a cult following for assassinating Thompson because “healthcare is expensive.” After Trump was shot, opponents mocked him. Democratic Colorado State Sen. Steven Woodrow even tweeted: “The last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are.”

Soliman claimed his Pearl Street firebombing had “nothing to do” with Jews — just targeting a “Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine).” Boulder City Councilwoman Taishya Adams refused to join her colleagues’ letter condemning the attack, justifying it because his goal was “ending Zionism.”

“Anti-Zionism” is antisemitism by another name. Excusing violence because of its purported political motives erases moral clarity.

After Kirk was shot, the hateful rhetoric kept rolling. Online, some on the Left cheered his death, even naming others on the Right — Trump, Matt Walsh, Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok — who should be “next.”

On MSNBC, while Kirk’s life hung in the balance, Matthew Dowd implied he’d invited his own assassination because “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.” Another commentator said maybe a Kirk supporter was “shooting their gun off in celebration” — as if conservatives party by randomly spraying bullets into a crowd of 3,000.

Most gun owners are law-abiding. The absurdity is astonishing: suggesting Kirk was struck accidentally, recklessly by one of his own.

Closer to home, a St. Vrain Valley teacher shared a Facebook post sneering at Kirk’s death — rejecting “thoughts and prayers” because “fascists want our sympathy.” Its chilling final line: “He can rest in piss.”

And on the U.S. House floor, when Rep. Lauren Boebert required a moment to pray for her friend who’d just been gunned down while exercising his First Amendment rights, Democratic colleagues shouted her down and booed.

A national political figure was shot in front of thousands of students — a father who leaves behind his young wife with their two little children. And this was the response?

Thankfully, some prominent Democrats including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Gabrielle Giffords, a survivor of an assassination attempt, unequivocally condemned Kirks assassination.

That’s basic human decency. And we need a lot more of it.

As one Facebook friend posted: “Unless both parties and their leaders strongly and loudly commit to nonviolence, violence will increasingly become the way Americans address ideological conflict.”

She’s right. In addition to strengthening our mental health system, we desperately need to tone down the rhetoric, proactively condemn violence and hold those who glorify or justify violence accountable.

Let’s be clear: Political violence of any kind — whether left or right, and especially in public before thousands — has no place in a free society. Nor does excusing it.

Last summer, following the first attempt on Trump’s life, I closed a column with this: “In a world rocked by reckless rhetoric, words have the power to enflame and sooth divisions. Choose wisely.”

That call bears repeating. Now more than ever.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.