General Discussion

First, Kirk's murder has the potential to trigger a backlash of violence. The usual suspects on the right are already ginning up their followers with inciting language, including Trump himself. If Robinson indeed turns out to have left-wing political views and killed Kirk because of his ideology, there could be retaliatory violence against prominent figures on our side of the aisle. I feel like a wave of retaliatory killings would fit the bill for a national tragedy.

Second, in a more philosophical sense, it's a national tragedy because this is America and people shouldn't be murdered in cold blood because of their political ideology. Those days are apparently over, and we are all the poorer for it because this one murder will have a chilling effect on free speech, one of the most vital pillars of our democracy.