The assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 at a Utah Valley University event should stop us cold. A man whose life was built around mobilizing young conservatives was gunned down while speaking on a stage meant for civic debate. His death is more than another tragic headline. It is a warning about what happens when we allow political violence to become normalized.
North Carolina has seen similar storm clouds. Protests in city streets, free speech clashes on our campuses, and threats against local officials show how fragile our civic life has become. What once played out in town halls as sharp but civil disagreement now too often looks like combat.
Our own constitution offers guidance. When North Carolinians declared independence in 1776, they enshrined one of America’s earliest protections for free expression. Article 15 of the Declaration of Rights protected the freedom of the press. That principle, expanded to include speech protections, remains in our state constitution at Article I, Section 14 of the modern text: “Freedom of speech and of the press are two of the great bulwarks of liberty and therefore shall never be restrained, but every person shall be held responsible for their abuse.”
That last phrase — responsibility for abuse — is key. Debate is protected. Threats and violence are not.
The state Supreme Court underscored this in State v. Petersilie (1994), when it struck down the prosecution of a private investigator who handed out campaign literature. The court made clear that North Carolina’s free speech clause stands on its own, sometimes offering broader protections than the federal First Amendment. That tradition obligates us to protect political expression while drawing bright lines against intimidation.
While constitutional guarantees of free speech restrain government action rather than private conduct, free speech as a civic value goes further. Employers, universities, churches, and communities all bear a responsibility to foster open debate and resist the temptation to silence those we dislike. A healthy democracy depends not only on legal rights but also on a culture that welcomes open debate, tolerates disagreement, and resists silencing others through intimidation or retaliation.
Charlie Kirk’s death must not become just another data point in America’s spiral. When violence replaces debate, we don’t just lose civility — we lose democracy itself. The framers of North Carolina’s Declaration of Rights understood that ideas must be met with ideas, not fear. We should remember their wisdom now, before it’s too late.