WASHINGTON — The killing of right-wing star Charlie Kirk brought on a flood of unpleasant memories for Sen. Mark Kelly — of the day when his wife, Gabby Giffords, then a member of Congress, was shot in the head while meeting with constituents.

He readily conceded that he’s no expert on what causes political violence or how to cure it. Just a husband for whom it hit close to home.

“I feel like this is un-American,” the Arizona Democrat said Thursday at the Senate. “I didn’t agree with Charlie Kirk on many things — most things, I would say. But one thing I did agree with him on is he has the right to be out there at that school talking to people … about his views on things.”

The 31-year-old Valley resident — founder of Turning Point USA, an influential group that spread conservatism on college campuses and helped President Donald Trump return to office — was shot Wednesday during an appearance at a Utah college.

“It immediately brought me back to that day in January of 2011 when Gabby was shot and thinking about how Charlie Kirk’s wife got that same sinking feeling,” Kelly said.

The gunman who shot Giffords in the parking lot of a Tucson supermarket killed 6 others, including one of her aides, a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. Giffords barely survived.

Kelly sees a “combination of factors” — including the heated political climate, social media that allows hateful speech to spread easily, and lax gun laws — but no quick solution.

He was hardly the only Arizona political leader lamenting the assassination and struggling to identify the remedy.

During a stop at St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix on Thursday, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs called Kirk’s death “a terrible loss,” noting that he inspired many people in Arizona and across the country.

“Political violence has no place in American democracy, and we have to stand together in rejecting that,” she said.

She emphasized the importance of working across the aisle and to resolve differences through voting and the legislative process.

“As an elected leader, my responsibility is to do everything I can to work to tone down the rhetoric,” the governor said. “I would call on other elected leaders to do the same and set that example that Americans will follow.”

A reporter pointed out that Hobbs herself has described adversaries as “extremist” or “dangerous.”

Hobbs said Kirk’s killing has prompted an assessment of her security and security on the state’s major college campuses.

In the wake of Kirk’s murder, Trump and other conservatives blamed “radical” Democrats and leftist hate speech.

Kelly didn’t directly address the president’s response to the killing but said he’s worried that a climate of hate has become normalized – in Washington and among “people throwing bombs at each other in 144 characters” on social media.

“We have got to try to tone down the rhetoric. Think before you speak. Don’t vilify the other side – that comes from both the left and the right way too often,” he said.

“When folks get really aggressive in the way they speak about their political opponents, that means something. People listen to us, they listen to the president, they listen to members of the House. … They listen to political influencers,” he said. “I think people’s words do matter.”

As for tighter gun laws, the prospects are dim in a Republican Congress.

“We don’t know how he got it,” Kelly said, referring to the Utah gunman, “but our lax gun laws in this country make it very easy for people to get firearms.”

As the manhunt continued in Utah and with the suspect not yet publicly identified, Kelly said it’s important not to give notoriety to assassins and mass shooters.

“Secret Service told me after my wife got shot that most people who are trying to kill a well-known person, a public figure, are doing it to get recognition,” he said. “They often want to become famous.”

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.

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Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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