Sean Stevens is Chief Research Adviser at FIRE, which is the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He explained his team's findings.
“We surveyed a little over 2,000 undergraduates on campuses across the country in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination. That sample includes roughly 200 students at Utah Valley University, the site of the assassination."
He said some of the questions on the survey asked students to describe their thoughts.
“One of these statements was words can be violence. Basically, the answer options go from does not describe my thoughts at all, all the way up to completely describes my thoughts. And so, only 9% of students said that the statement 'words can be violence' does not describe their thoughts at all."
Is it possible? Can words be violence?
"No, that's the key distinction. It's, At FIRE we would say like we have freedom of speech. Freedom of speech using our words is the way to avoid violence, even when we disagree."
He described some things that would help these kids.
"Personally … I've played ice hockey my whole life. I'm 43 years old, so, experiencing actual violence sometimes I think makes that distinction clear for you.”
The Charlie Kirk assassination should have helped provide that clarity, but in too many youth it did not, Stevens said.
“Charlie Kirk, some of his views a lot of people didn't like, but they were just words, and to witness what happened to him, whether you were there or whether you're watching it on video or just knowing what happened to him, I really would hope that distinction would become clearer."
