What did Charlie Kirk publicly say about the Second Amendment in past interviews and speeches?

1. The “not for hunting” line: framing the amendment as an anti‑tyranny safeguard

A 2018 post from Kirk—quoted repeatedly in later coverage—says plainly: “The 2nd amendment is not for hunting, it is not for self protection. It is there to ensure that free people can defend themselves if god forbid government became tyrannical and turned against its citizens,” a formulation that media outlets including Hindustan Times and indy100 republished when the quote resurfaced after subsequent shootings ^{[1] [2]}.

2. “Some gun deaths” are ‘worth it’: the 2023 Turning Point USA remark and its documentation

At a Turning Point USA Faith event in April 2023, Kirk told an audience that “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth 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,” language that was transcribed by Media Matters and later corroborated by fact‑checks and reporting from Snopes, Newsweek, BuzzFeed and others ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}.

3. How his words resurfaced and the contexts that amplified them

Kirk’s statements have repeatedly reappeared in news coverage after high‑profile shootings, including the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota and the 2025 assassination of Kirk himself, with outlets noting the irony and prompting renewed debate over the meaning and consequences of his framing of the Second Amendment ^{[1] [2] [7]}. Social‑media circulation and news cycles have repeatedly resurrected the 2018 and 2023 remarks amid public controversies ^{[3] [5]}.

4. Reactions and criticism: political and moral pushback

Reporting records show sharp condemnation of Kirk’s “worth it” comment; critics argued the remark trivializes victims of gun violence and some public figures publicly challenged Kirk to ask victims’ families whether lives were an acceptable “cost” ^[4]. Advocacy groups and commentators have framed his rhetoric as part of a broader ideological defense of expansive gun rights that, to opponents, downplays human costs ^[8].

5. Verification and fact‑checking: what the record shows about authenticity

Independent fact‑checks and media outlets verified that Kirk did make the 2023 “some gun deaths” remark at the April 5, 2023 event and that the 2018 anti‑tyranny tweet existed and has been reposted many times; Snopes explicitly documented the 2023 quote and Media Matters published transcripts that include it ^{[5] [3]}. Multiple publications summarized the same quotes and their contexts, which reduces the likelihood that the lines are misattributed in major reports ^{[4] [6]}.

6. Competing interpretations and implicit agendas

Supporters portray Kirk’s statements as candid defense of a principled reading of the Second Amendment that prioritizes deterrence of government over other policy tradeoffs, while critics argue the framing rationalizes preventable deaths and serves a political agenda to resist gun‑safety reforms; reporting from outlets like Newsweek, The Guardian and advocacy sites underscores these conflicting framings and the partisan stakes ^{[4] [9] [8]}. Media amplification during tragedy also serves agendas — critics of Kirk highlight the human toll, while allies sometimes depict critiques as political opportunism ^{[3] [1]}.

Conclusion: what the public record supports

The documented public record contains two durable themes in Kirk’s comments on the Second Amendment: an explicit anti‑tyranny justification articulated in a 2018 post and a 2023 onstage admission that he accepts “some gun deaths” as the cost of preserving gun rights, both repeatedly verified and widely reported; how those remarks are interpreted depends sharply on political perspective and media framing ^{[1] [3] [5] [6]}.