By Abigail Sparks

Thursday marked one year since the death of American right-wing political activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. His legacy remains relevant through discussion on gun violence, yet gun deaths continue and remain an unknown topic to some University of Maryland students. 

As of Sept. 10, gun violence has caused 9,041 deaths, according to the Gun Violence Archive. On Sept. 7, a shooting occurred roughly 30 minutes from UMD at the Addison Road Metro Station in Prince George’s County.

Gia Chipley, a freshman enrolled in the letters and sciences program, said she was unaware of the recent shooting, but she had heard about Kirk’s death.

“Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot more because of the anniversary,” Chipley said. “And how people started making conspiracy theories. I know the guy who was asking the question when he got shot became the center of a lot of conspiracy theories. People saying he was in on it …  that he was a part of a grander scheme of killing conservative figures.” Chipley said. 

Michael DeWeaver, senior public policy major and UMD College Democrats’ director of operations, said due to the frequency of political violence, Americans have become desensitized to it. 

“Of course political assassinations are always a shock to Americans,” DeWeaver said. “But honestly, political violence is unfortunately kind of frequent enough that you would think Americans wouldn’t be that surprised by it … It always prompts a knee-jerk reaction where everybody says this is not who we are as Americans.” 

Kirk’s death has stayed relevant within pop culture this year through discussions on gun reform. His presence on social media as a political activist keeps his death relevant in the media, according to DeWeaver.  

“He was shot and killed, and the video was shared everywhere, with multiple perspectives of it,” DeWeaver said.

As DeWeaver pointed out, the ability for people around the world to view his death could be one of the reasons Kirk’s death has carried so much weight this past year. 

After Kirk’s death, many took to social media to discuss how the event is attributed to the necessity for gun regulation, according to Hannah Vander Wall, the president of UMD’s Turning Point USA chapter and a member of UMD College Republicans, who believes Kirk received a lot of online attention even before his death.

“There’s a lot of chatter on social media about [Kirk’s death] in general, not necessarily negative,” Vander Wall said. “People saying, ‘Oh, this is why gun control is so important.’”

“I feel like over the past year, it hasn’t been in a serious sense that I’ve seen him,” Chipley said. “It’s a lot of AI-generated brain rot of him. You know, people putting his face onto everything but his body.”

Mentions of Kirk this past year are largely because of the hold social media has on his image. 

“Before his passing, Charlie was already a meme of sorts, and I think that … as a conservative myself, I’ve always received a lot of flack on such a liberal campus for believing the things I do,” Vander Wall said. “But I think Charlie, because he was a public figure, received all of that … and I think that kind of set the scene for how things are currently.” 

After Kirk’s death, many took to social media to discuss how the event is attributed to the necessity for gun regulation, according to Vander Wall. 

The social media phenomenon that has occurred from Kirk’s death has sparked discussions on gun violence over the past year.

“We’ve all heard a lot more about Charlie Kirk’s death … There’s the fact that he had a huge platform … him having such a huge platform of people, both who actually believed in what he was saying and people who were perplexed by his thoughts,” Chipley said.

Featured Image: A flag flies in front of Thomas V. Miller Jr. Administration Building on Sept. 12, 2026. Photo by Abigail Sparks.