OXFORD, Ohio — Political events and discussions like the one where Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was killed on Wednesday, have been very popular on college campuses in the last few years.
Kirk played a large role in that and often advocated for more conservative values to be taught in schools. That’s why he founded Turning Point USA.
At Miami University, a chapter of the nonprofit just launched this year. Their first meeting was held on Tuesday.
The chapter's vice president, Barrett LeMaster, told us he couldn't believe what happened.
"It was very devastating for me to see," LeMaster said.
Hear how students at Miami University reacted to Kirk's assassination in the video below:
LeMaster said he feels Kirk's assassination was an attack on the First Amendment.
"If you feel inclined to end someone's life because of things they say or their truths ... I just think that's a blatant attack on the amendment," LeMaster said.
With the popularity of political events and debates rising on college campuses, we wanted to see how students felt about what happened to Kirk.
"I feel like Miami's a very safe campus, but overall, I feel like what happened yesterday, I feel like there's precautions that need to be taken at those events," said sophomore Melayna Papalios.
Papalios said what happened to Kirk makes her a bit nervous about similar events that could happen at Miami University.
"At a college campus, you should be able to go to educational events like that because politics are important," Papalios said. "But at the same time, you should be able to go those without having to fear for your life or fear anything."
However, she said those conversations are important for people, especially college students, to have.
"If people aren't going because they're fearing for their safety, I feel like that becomes super problematic," Papalios said.
We also caught up with freshman Grace Earley. She said she attended a political event on campus just hours after Kirk was killed.
"They were considering last night, like, should we have a security officer on scene? Should we bring in security?" Earley said. "But I definitely think that security measures should be definitely heightened."
After talking to students, we wanted to see if local universities were reconsidering their security approach with similar events. We reached out to the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, Miami University and Northern Kentucky University.
However, we only heard back from a spokesperson at Cincinnati, who sent the following statement: "The Public Safety Department and UC Police tailor security to every event based upon the needs of the event. We are always looking at ways to improve our security efforts."
LeMaster said he hopes people don't shy away from having open discussions about their political beliefs. He said he believes what happened to Kirk may spark more desire to have those conversations. He said that after Kirk was killed, he heard from a lot of people.
"I actually had over 40 different people on this campus individually reach out to me about joining our club here," LeMaster said.
He said he encourages everyone to continue to voice their beliefs and be open to opposing views.
"I promise there is somebody to hear it, there is somebody that wants to talk with you about it, there is somebody that wants to discuss it with you and really rationalize with you," said LeMaster.
