A prayer at a Sunday candlelight vigil held on UK's campus near Memorial Hall urged listeners to remember the activist cut down in the "prime of his life" — but couldn't help invoke the flaring political divisions.
"Lord, many have come tonight with broken hearts, for we know this is not a red versus blue, this is not a Democrat versus Republican, but this is right versus wrong," one speaker said.
Congressman Andy Barr, and fellow Republican candidate for Senate Nate Morris, were also in attendance. Barr has put his name to legislation posthumously awarding Kirk the Congressional Gold Medal.
Reactions to the death of the polarizing media figure, who was fatally shot in Utah last week, have ranged from calls for unity and pledges to uphold the value of free speech to formal actions against individuals posting comments seen as glorifying the killing.
At UK, an employees who manages the university's key shop was put on administrative leave while the school investigates an online comment deemed "cruel," "insensitive," and "wrong."
According to NPR, over thirty people across the country have been fired, put on leave, investigated, or been pressured to resign after posting comments critical of Kirk or appearing to celebrate the influencer's assassination.
Critics worry the response is being used to further clamp down on free speech.