Charlamagne Tha God has sparked conversation after addressing the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during Thursday’s episode of The Breakfast Club. The radio host condemned the killing as “horrific” while also stressing that Kirk himself had long acknowledged the risks tied to his staunch pro-gun beliefs.
“Everybody is just assuming this is political violence and it quite possibly is…matter of fact I’m sure it is, but you know what else it is? Gun violence,” Charlamagne said on air. “These nutjobs who don’t believe in freedom of speech clearly believe in their right to bear arms, and because of the lax gun laws in America they’re able to get firearms to carry out these violent acts.”
He explained that news of the shooting immediately struck a personal chord. “When I heard what happened to Charlie Kirk yesterday, I immediately felt fear. I’m a Black man in America, I think about getting shot every day. But guess what? Every American should think about getting shot every day when you’re out in a public place, simply because it’s been zero days since a mass shooting happened in this country.”
Kirk, who was outspoken in his defense of the Second Amendment, was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University. Authorities believe a high-powered rifle was used, though the suspect remains at large.
Charlamagne added that while he didn’t share Kirk’s ideology, the incident raised broader concerns for public figures. “I don’t want to live in a country where media personalities are being shot and killed for their opinions or what they believe,” he said. “But as much as we like to point to the First Amendment and say we all have freedom of speech, we are not free from the consequences of said speech. There is a cost to everything that comes out of our mouths and unfortunately, we don’t get to set the price.”
He then played a resurfaced clip of Kirk himself acknowledging that reality: “You will never live in a society where you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death. That is nonsense. But I think it’s worth it… 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.”
Reflecting on those words, Charlamagne questioned the logic. “Even if Charlie Kirk had a gun yesterday, it wouldn’t have protected him. When somebody’s got the drop on you, they got you. The only thing that could have saved Charlie Kirk was keeping guns out of the hands of violent extremists like the person who killed him. And the only way to do that is with common sense gun reform.”