Thursday, 11 September 2025.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes with deep concern the escalating of gun violence in the United States after news that Charlie Kirk, one of the most vocal proponents of unrestricted access to firearms, was shot in the neck while addressing a university audience. It is not lost on us that the very same man who argued that lives lost are a price worth paying for gun rights, has himself become a casualty of the very system he championed.

The statistics are staggering. In 2023, the U.S. recorded 46,728 firearm-related deaths. In schools, the violence is relentless as in 2024 alone, the U.S. endured 83 school shootings leaving 38 people dead and 115 injured. In 2023 there were at least 82 school shootings, claiming 46 lives. Furthermore, by mid-2025, there had already been a significant increase with 91 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, with eight resulting in casualties. These statistics are not from a warzone, but from a country that tells the world it embodies security and democracy.

What makes this worse is the refusal of U.S. lawmakers to act. Loopholes allow firearms to be purchased without background checks; safe-storage laws are weak and inconsistently enforced; open carry laws allow for normalisation of public visibility of firearms; and assault weapons, designed for battlefields, remain easily accessible to civilians. Year after year, the U.S. Congress resists reform, proving that the profits of gun manufacturers and the ideology of “freedom at all costs” take precedence over the lives of schoolchildren.

The case of Charlie Kirk is a mirror held up to American culture as the so-called freedom to carry weapons has turned into a freedom to die by them. This is the natural consequence of a political order that treats violence as an acceptable tool, both domestically and abroad. The same nation that indiscriminately invades and bombs countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq on false intelligence and bombed Libya in the name of “human rights”, now finds itself unable to control the bloodshed in its own streets. The chickens have indeed come home to roost.

This crisis, however, carries global implications. The United States is set to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup; a tournament meant to unite nations and celebrate humanity through sport. Yet, in the midst of recurring shootings and the inability of authorities to curb the violence, serious questions arise about whether the U.S. can guarantee safety for players, fans, and tourists.

FIFA cannot ignore this reality. It has a duty to ensure that all qualifying nations, their delegations, and ordinary supporters will be safe in a country where mass shootings are almost weekly news. A nation that cannot guarantee its children safety in classrooms cannot be assumed ready to protect the world on its soil.

Yet even in this tragedy, the U.S. establishment risks repeating its cycle of denial. There are already attempts to use Kirk’s death as a pretext for more political violence, this time directed at perceived opponents on the left. Such a move would only entrench the very culture of death that produced this moment. Instead of another round of militarisation, what the U.S congress needs is to implement urgent, genuine reform and an acknowledgement that human life cannot be second to corporate gun profits or ideological stubbornness.

ISSUED BY ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Sinawo Thambo (National Spokesperson) 072 629 7422

Thembi Msane (National Spokesperson) 061 467 8169

Andiswa Madikazi (Parliament Media Liason) 069 516 4924

Thato Lebyane (Media Inquiries) 078 563 1581