Charlie Kirk was sitting in the late summer sun, answering a question about mass shootings, when his audience at the Utah Valley University heard the crack of a bullet, and saw him slump sideways. Hours later, the 31-year-old political influencer and free speech champion was pronounced dead, the latest victim of a rising tide of political violence in America.

His death came at a febrile moment in US public life, said Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal , but whereas previous assassinations have tended to lower the temperature, this one may have raised it. Many Americans are heartbroken, others are gleeful, “and they are irreconcilable”. But what a “disaster” this is for the young, in particular. Kirk had spent years counselling young Christians and conservatives , who felt “cowed

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