Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Political violence is no longer an abstract threat but a heavy reality for Americans.

In recent months, we have seen Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family targeted during Passover, a Minnesota state legislator and her husband assassinated in their own home, another Minnesota legislator and his wife shot and now the high-profile killing of Charlie Kirk at a college campus rally. Most Americans are struggling to make sense of the state of our union.

Political fallout related to Kirk’s assassination has been immediate with a chilling effect spreading beyond violence it

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