When speech is violence and violence is resistance ...

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who toured college campuses to discuss his conservative ideas with students, was assassinated yesterday at Utah Valley State University. Political leaders of both parties condemned the murder. But some online posters celebrated.

Kirk, who started TP USA as an 18-year-old and was 31 when he died, became a very effective debater and political organizer. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Kirk was gracious, writes Adam Rubenstein, who wrote a profile on the rising star when he was 24. "We could disagree about anything — and we did — but he would, without fail, engage civilly and explain his point of view. . . . That’s the spirit he took to the hundreds of campuses he visited. Not denunciation. Not shouting down. Never an insult. He sought to debate ideas, and did so in hostile territory. Charlie all but recreated the public town square on these campuses . . . "

Violence may be justified to silence offensive speech, say about a third of college students, writes Angel Eduardo. A majority of students -- on the left and right -- oppose allowing controversial speakers, and more than two-thirds support the heckler’s veto, shouting so loud nobody can hear the speaker, according to the latest College Free Speech Rankings Survey by the of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

Silencing dissenters isn't just a left-wing thing any more, writes J.D. Tuccille in Reason. "Now right-leaning students have decided the heckler's veto is OK, FIRE reports.

Claremont-McKenna, which earned a B- for free speech friendliness, is the best college in the U.S. for free speech, according to FIRE's rankings. Purdue, University of Chicago and Michigan Tech come next with C grades.

Most colleges failed. Barnard College, Columbia University, and Indiana University are the worst for free speech, FIRE concluded.

"For the first time ever, a majority of students would prevent speakers from both the left and right who express controversial views, ranging from abortion to transgender issues, from stepping foot on campus," said the report. "Students of every political persuasion show a deep unwillingness to encounter controversial ideas."

Perhaps Kirk's murder will remind all of us that we are human beings living together in a diverse country. We don't have to agree with each other. But we have to tolerate each other.