Still, violence has been the answer in many (most?) political revolutions, including the American revolution and separation from Britain.
Violence and politics are both on a spectrum and means to the same end of asserting your will. Vom Kriege is obviously not the forefront of philosophy anymore but it’s a good place to start if anyone reading this hasn’t come across that idea and wants to learn more.
Even your non violent examples of King and Ghandi has very violent wings on the side showing society that if a resolution wasn’t achieved by peaceful ends then violence it is. Remember that the civil rights act didn’t get enough support to be passed until after King was assassinated and mass riots rose across the nation
Violence is sometimes the answer. Domestic assassinations almost never are. Kirk is about to become a martyr.
To be fair, crazy people will justify their craziness with anything. The problem is less what this may be used to justify and more that it creates a more-permissive environment for further political violence.
> And more may be to come: some GOP lawmakers and officials are signaling their readiness to punish people for their speech. Conservative activists are collecting and publicizing social media posts and profiles that they say "celebrated" his death and are calling for them to lose their jobs.
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5538476/charlie-kirk-jo...
The McCarthy period, as comparison, lasted much too long and claimed many victims before it was discredited as immorally crazy.