KU, Mizzou students honor Charlie Kirk: ‘He’s the reason why I’m a conservative’
Two flickering votive candles, and twelve white roses were placed Wednesday evening at Traditions Plaza at the University of Missouri in honor of the life of conservative activitist Charlie Kirk, 31, who only hours before was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Utah.
Kirk, who was shot in the neck as he spoke outside, himself sitting beneath a small white tent on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, had been scheduled to speak at Mizzou on September 29.
The makeshift memorial was part of an evening vigil for Kirk, set up by the University of Missouri chapter of Turning Point USA, the national group that Kirk, a friend and follower of President Donald Trump, co-founded in 2012 to evangelize his version of conservativism on college campuses.
A vigil on the campus of the University of Kansas is planned for tonight, Thursday evening, at the memorial Campanile.
“Nobody should have to endure this, no matter what your political party,” Paige Schulte, president of Turning Point’s Mizzou chapter said Thursday. A 20-year-old junior, Schulte organized Wednesday evening’s vigil. “I just really wish we wouldn’t kill each other because of our political beliefs.
“Right now, we need Jesus more than ever.”
Dozens of students attended the vigil, which began with prayer, ended with a hymn and included singing “God Bless the USA,” the univeristy television station, NBC affiliate KOMU-TV reported.
Schulte, who once met Kirk at a summer event, called Kirk one of her “biggest inspirations.”
“I really admired how he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. He had the courage to speak up about conservative values,” she said. “I think he just meant everything to me and every other youth, conservative person in this country.”
Vigils at other campuses
Similar vigils were held on campuses nationwide. Roughly 100 people turned out for a vigil at the University of Oklahoma.
“He changed my life,” Aaron Newman, a sophomore told the OU Daily. “He’s the reason why I’m a conservative. He’s the reason why I believe what I believe. And above, all, he was a good man. He didn’t deserve to get his life taken from him.”
Controversial ideals
Kirk was known to stoke controversy, promoting not only a politically conservative idealogy, but, as a friend and acolyte of the president, the president’s agenda. He was a strong proponant of the contentious Second Amendment right to bear arms.
In 2023, at Turning Point USA Faith event, Kirk said, “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
On its website, the Anti-Defamation League describes Turning Point USA as a “right-wing student organization.”
It maintains that since its founding, Kirk had “moved further to the right and has promoted numerous conspiracy theories about election fraud and Covid-19 and has demonized the transgender community.”
Kirk, the group maintains, also promoted Christian nationalism, the notion that Christians should dominate government and other aspects of life in the United States.
Turning Poing USA, the league said, “continues to attract racists to the group. Numerous TPUSA representatives have made bigoted remarks about minority groups and the LGBTQ+ community.”
‘Democracy itself begins to die’
At Duke University in North Carolina, some 80 students and community members turned out for a vigil.
“A husband and a father is gone for defending his conservative opinions,” senior Zander Pitrus, president of the Duke College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom, told the Duke Chronicle. “No political cause ever justifies bloodshed. When politics becomes a battlefield of hatred instead of ideas, democracy itself begins to die.”
At a vigil at the University of Alabama, student Parker Hull called Kirk “one of my heroes,” the television station CBS42 reported.
“I watched a video of him like a week ago,” Hull said. “I think one of the things God has blessed me with is the abilty to stand up for my beliefs, and I think Charlie has been a big part of that. When I looked at him, I looked at his boldness. It inspires me to stand up for my conservative beliefs and faith.”
As of Thursday afternoon, police in Utah had recovered an older-model Mauser 30-06 caliber, high-powered, bolt-action rifle near campus. They also released images of a person of interest in the fatal shooting.
This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 12:55 PM.
