Transcript
Bill 'Bubba' Bussy (0:00)
Hello again, everybody, and welcome to Bubba on the Lake. We have started the show a little different today. The festive mood is not here. We had a fun show that we wanted to present to you on 9 11. But all that changed on 910 when shortly after lunch, I got a text that there had been a shooting at Charlie Kirk's event in Utah. And I thought, what is that about Utah? That's usually not a very dangerous spot. Fairly conservative. Probably would have been a warm crowd for Charlie there. And then I got the message a little bit later that he had actually been shot and condition unknown. Then a little bit later, we heard that he was stable. And a short time after that, President Trump announced that Charlie Kirk had been killed in a political assassination today on the campus of Utah Valley University in Utah. Charlie Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA. 31 years old. He leaves behind a wife, Erica, and two small children. He was a dynamo on many fronts. I did not know Charlie Kirk personally. I have several friends that did know him personally and. But I never had the pleasure of meeting him myself. But I was a fan of what he was doing, the way he was doing it. He was a believer in free speech. If you had seen any of his rallies, his story is really incredible. He grew up in Chicago and was kind of taken back about the way that politics was going, especially for young Americans, and may have even tried college for a while and decided that he was not getting educated. They were trying to indoctrinate him and quit, did the heck with it, and started his own group called Turning Point usa, that was to educate young people, to give them the other side of the story, to let them know that there were conservative values and conservative ideas that worked and were actually better than some of the things that were being taught or indoctrinated in college.
Betty (2:43)
And.
Bill 'Bubba' Bussy (2:43)
And he paid the ultimate price for that today. Rather, if you supported Charlie Kirk and his conservative political views or you opposed him, either way, that's fine. You have the ability to do that. But what I think we all need to do together is to speak out heavily against political violence. You know, free speech is the most coveted right that we have. Our framers put it, number one, they put it above owning a gun. They put it above the way we elect our senators and our congressman and our president. They put it above everything else that you had the right to speak your mind. Now, there's consequences to when you speak your mind. You're going to have people that disagree with you, but you can do that in a civilized manner. This goes Back to the very founding of our country when you used to get on a street corner and give a speech, and if you would stand on your soapbox, you could not go over and out shout him and try to run him off the corner. You had to go find your own corner and get on a soapbox and give your opinion. It's just so counter American for this type of activity. As we're recording this late in the afternoon, there was one suspect that was grabbed early. They say now he's just nothing to do with the shooter, but he was creating a disturbance and has been charged with disorderly conduct that may or may not be dropped. The FBI director has said that there is someone else who is in custody who they believe to be the shooter. Now, the press conference a little while ago did not acknowledge that. So, as in many times when you have these kind of things happen, there's conflicting facts, conflicting reports, and you have to work your way through all of that. But the thing here, there's really two. Two sides to this coin. There's the spiritual side. And on that side, God called home a servant. Today, Charlie Kirk is in a better place. He was a believer. He loved God. He believed that Jesus Christ was his savior, and that Jesus Christ was exactly who he said he was. He was the Son of God. He was the sacrificial lamb to take the punishment for sin, past, present, and future, all by one man, so that we could have fellowship with an eternal, just God, the only way it could be done. And I've heard people say, well, how can one man do that? Well, through one man, sin entered the world also. So through the sacrifice of a 100% man, 100% God, perfect individual, a bridge was built back to a just and eternal God who does not make mistakes. And today, he chose to bring Charlie home. I have no doubt, based on what I have seen and the way Charlie lived his life and what his friends have told me, that he is with the Lord in paradise today, at this very moment, as you listen to this, and given how good this place is, given the choice to return back to earth, even to his beloved family and his beloved Job and his movement, he would gladly stay in the presence of the Lord, as would any of us. His wife is going to suffer a terrible earthly loss, but she is also a very strong believer, and she will use this, and she will lean on her faith and she will get through this. It will be difficult. It will be hard. It will be unimaginable, especially the way it happened, but she will get through it because God tells us that with him, we can overcome everything that stands in our way. Everything. Even death of a beloved spouse. Painful as it is and as difficult as it will be, it will not be an easy road. But she will survive. She will overcome. I have no doubt on the political side of this. Again, it's a little bit of our Constitution being ripped. We hear people give speeches all the time, talking about an ex. Extra dental. I can't even say the word now. Ex existential. There you go. Threat to democracy. People having policies and getting up and making speeches is not a threat to democracy. That is democracy. That was the whole idea. We were going to stand up, we were going to debate. The citizens would listen to both sides of the argument, and they would decide for themselves at the ballot box. That is how the system is supposed to work. And Charlie did that. He went to campuses, some that were friendly, some that were hostile, and he had the, hey, come up and debate me table. I mean, you got to come up. And he wanted people that disagreed with him to come to the front of the line. He loved to debate. Some people don't care for that. But it was just words. It was just debating. It was just ideas. And no one was threatened, no one was hurt. But today, someone decided to enter into the political debate. A gun and a bullet. And that is when all of us in the country take a wound. Democracy is wounded. Our Constitution is wounded. We're a worse country this afternoon than we were this morning, even on the cusp of 9 11. So I truly think that the loss of Charlie Kirk will inspire young people. And while we have heavy hearts now and our eyes fill with tears and our hearts are heavy, I think you will see many more Charlie Kirks arise from this. Nature paints a beautiful picture. Every time a tree falls in the woods and dies, it gives seedlings and starts to many new trees. It's the cycle of life. And so it will be with Charlie Kirk. Sad for his death, thankful for his life. And we will continue this discussion when we come back. You're listening to Bubba on the Lake.