When it comes to Charlie Kirk, the vast majority of both his supporters and haters were high school students and young adults. Although he had many fans in this generation, many people were also against him.

Charlie Kirk was a prominent conservative on the internet, and on Sept. 10, at just 31 years old, he was assassinated at an event where he was speaking at Utah Valley University. 

Although many have tried to paint Kirk as all things ranging from an Evangelical preacher to a politician, Kirk was best described as an influencer or a debater.

Kirk rose to fame from clips on social media of him debating college students, and he eventually died doing just that. 

Because of his young age and his fiery and rapid style of debate that easily went viral, Kirk amassed a high number of Gen Z followers. Students may have seen that the issue of Charlie Kirk divided the student body long before his assassination, and now with him dead, arguments about him are becoming increasingly more common.

On one side of the political spectrum, Kirk was hailed as a leader and was even credited directly by President Donald Trump for bringing many young voters to the polls to vote for Trump in 2024. 

He was, in many ways, an activist for young Republicans and won favor among both the elites and the common voter. 

“Charlie Kirk should be remembered as a hero who lost his life by expressing his freedom of speech,” junior Luke Bratrud, vice president of the Loudoun Valley Young Conservatives Club, said. “When Charlie Kirk was alive, I followed him and watched him talk to college students, and I agreed with him on most of his points.” 

Democrats were generally not supportive of Kirk and his mission. 

“He was just a guy who screamed bloody murder about things that weren’t true, and he just wanted attention,” senior Emma Tulowitzky, a member of the Young Democrats Club said. 

Kirk was almost infamous on the left for his comments on topics like gun violence and abortion. Those who disagreed with him perceived him as loud or obnoxious.

Despite the major differences in views on Kirk, initial reactions to his passing were largely similar: shock and sympathy. 

When asked what their first reactions to seeing the news on that day were, both Tulowitzky and Bratrud said that one of the things they thought of was Kirk’s wife and two young children. 

“Regardless of anything he said that people disagreed with, Kirk did not deserve to be murdered,” sophomore Violet Baylus said. “That’s inhumane.”

Bratrud and Tulowitzky both said they were in a state of disbelief and did not immediately believe what was being reported.

However, it did not take long for opinions to differ. 

Liberals and Democrats who disliked Kirk took their distaste for his opinions to the extreme and even celebrated his death on social media, which critics said was tone deaf or out of touch when a relatively young man had been killed in a brutal manner. 

Such posters faced immediate critique, and a slew of mass firings followed.

The death of Kirk only reinforced the growing divisions between Americans of different political values and opinions. 

“Granted, [murder] is wrong, but I think he was a victim of his own demise and consequences,”  Tulowkitzky said.

When someone has died recently, it is easy to point fingers and place blame. 

“The liberal response to this is somewhat insensitive,” Bratrud said. “When a man lost his life they barely protested, which really shows that they don’t care about anyone not on their [political] side of the country too much.”