1 In 9 Americans Still Believe Political Violence Is Sometimes Justified

Unless you live under a rock, you will jnow by now that conservative activist Charlie Kirk (31) was shot dead while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

At the time of writing, the shooter is still at large and a manhunt is underway.

Kirk was an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative student movement.

In a statement, Trump blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for Kirk’s death while politicians on both sides of the aisle shared their condolences.

The shooting adds to a growing list of incidents of politically-motivated violence in the United States, with echoes of an incident last year when Trump was also nearly shot at a rally in front of a crowd.

Despite the major rift that exists between left and right, data shows that such acts of political violence are not tolerated by the vast majority of U.S. adults.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, following the shooting, YouGov asked 2,326 U.S. adults to share their opinions on whether they think it is ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Where 11 percent said that they thought violence can be justified in some cases, 72 percent said that it is never justified.

The remaining 16 percent were either unsure or preferred not to answer.

As the chart shows, both sides of the aisle are at least united in their stance that political violence in the U.S. today is a problem.

Where 87 percent of respondents said that it was at least somewhat of an issue, only one percent said it was not a problem at all and five percent said that it was not much of a problem.