State Rep. Luke Meerman issued the following statement after the assassination of Charlie Kirk:

Charlie Kirk was a man of deep compassion, integrity, and a man of faith. He was a father and a husband. Yesterday’s violence will see two children grow up without their father and this selfish act further descends this nation into division. Charlie Kirk was murdered for exercising the rights and freedoms this nation cherishes, that we have protected since the inception of our nation, and that we have upheld through trial and tribulation.

Charlie was someone who loved this country and who believed in the values that we stand for. He was willing to talk to anyone. He was willing to meet with anyone, especially those who disagreed and disparaged him. He never shied away from civil conversation, and he inspired millions across the nation. He was assassinated for his thought and his conviction. This was a political assassination amid a season of political violence.

We all have a responsibility to condemn the killing of Charlie Kirk. This heinous, barbaric act stole one of our nation’s most cherished champions of freedom and liberty. But we must excise the tolerance for violence from our rhetoric discourse. Speech must not beget violence, and we are at a breaking point. Prominent thought leaders in the news media and elected officials in Congress and across the nation have led us to this point where violence is tolerated, equivocated, and within the minds of the most deranged in our nation, celebrated.

We have a duty to denounce violence yes, but it is our duty to dispute and oppose those who mislead to the point that violence becomes palatable. When public discourse labels thought as fascist and Hitlerian, there will be someone listening that is depraved enough to consider violence.

I pray for the family of Charlie Kirk, and I pray for our nation.