At the same time that Republican political activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University, three students were injured during a school shooting at Evergreen High School. Kirk’s murder has become the subject of online debate — mainly about whether or not he deserved to be shot — while the Evergreen High School shooting remains only covered by local news outlets. So why does Kirk’s murder spark controversy, while a school shooting garners apathy?
The Evergreen High School shooting marks the 47th American school shooting in 2025. These shootings often spark empathy online for a few days , but then discussion largely disappears. School shootings have become just another part of American life — a horrific act of violence, but one that no longer seems to phase those watching on the outside.
However, during the Columbine school shooting of 1999, both media and public outrage was widespread. Pew Research Center marked the tragedy as one of the most attentive American events of the 1990s, with nearly seven in 10 Americans stating that they were following the event closely. Millions of dollars were sent to charities to help support victims and their families, and the U.S. senate passed an act requiring background checks on all gun sales.
Now, during his second term in office, President Donald Trump has shut down the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, in addition to removing a memorial honoring gun violence victims from the AFT headquarters. Gun violence was once a cause for shock, despair and empathy — yet is now a source of indifference.
Kirk, dying from an act of gun violence himself just two years later, stated in 2023 that, “I think it’s worth the cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”
Some users online say Kirk’s comments and beliefs marked his own death, while others are offering sympathies to him and his family. Though within all these debates and claims about murder, gun violence and Second Amendment rights, the Evergreen High School shooting goes largely ignored.
Herein lies the answer to why Americans seem to be so apathetic about school shootings: we’re used to it.
The public murder of a controversial political figure isn’t something we’re particularly accustomed to, but mass shootings are. Americans have become desensitized to gun violence, not only because of the sheer number of shootings, but also how little is being done to stop it.
Both Kirk’s death and his past comments make one thing clear: this isn’t an issue that’s going to stop. Americans have become numb to the tragedies they once mourned, and with that, comes the acceptance of violence.
