Recently, a survey conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) revealed that around 30% of college students across the U.S. think that using violence is an acceptable method to prevent a controversial speaker from addressing an audience on campus. This includes 3% who believe it’s always acceptable, 12% saying it’s sometimes acceptable, and 16% who see it as rarely justified.
This survey comes in the wake of a tragic event where Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated during a campus debate on September 10, 2025. This incident has certainly left a mark on discussions around free speech on campuses.
Interestingly, the findings show a slight decline from the previous year when 34% of students thought that violence was an acceptable form of protest. However, it’s worth noting that there has been a 10-point increase from four years ago. On a more positive note, around 70% of students now assert that violence should never be used to oppose a speaker.
Similarly, the survey indicated that 69% of students believe it’s acceptable to shout down a speaker they disagree with, although this is a drop of three points from last year. Still, this figure is up seven points from four years ago.
FIRE’s data analyst, Chapin Lenthall-Cleary, expressed some cautious optimism about the decrease in the number of students who find violent responses acceptable. Yet, he pointed out that as long as students believe they might face harm for expressing dissenting opinions, the climate for free speech will remain strained. Lenthall-Cleary speculated that witnessing the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk could have shifted some students’ beliefs regarding acceptable forms of protest.
The survey also noted a shift in attitudes among students across the ideological spectrum. While, in the past, liberal students were more accepting of violence compared to their conservative counterparts, this trend seems to have changed, with more students from both sides showing similar levels of acceptance towards violence as a response to disagreement. Thankfully, overall support for violence is down somewhat, but still, the statistic that over 30% find it at least occasionally acceptable raises concerns.
FIRE emphasized that Charlie Kirk’s assassination on the Utah Valley University campus had significant and lasting implications for free speech, creating a complex atmosphere for discussions regarding controversial ideas.
The organization’s extensive survey gathered responses from 62,997 undergraduate students at 262 colleges, giving insight into the current state of free speech and expression in higher education.
According to their latest report, the top five schools rated for free speech are the University of Chicago, Claremont McKenna College, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan Technological University, and Vanderbilt University.
