Beside a photo of Kirk draped in an American flag, the vigil opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an open mic where community members and elected officials spoke. The night closed with prayer and the national anthem.

One of the speakers was Aleks Evans, chair of MSU College Republicans and organizer of the event.

"A part of me still can't believe that this is a reality, but here we are," Evans said. "Once we finally came to accept it, we knew we had to do something to get the community together."

MSU Trustee Mike Balow spoke early in the evening, calling Kirk’s death a gut punch and saying he came to show support.

"There are people here who hate America so much, who will stop at nothing to silence people and to take their vengeance upon people," Balow said. "And the answer to that is to stand together, to speak for who you are, to support each other."

Some attendees described Kirk as courageous. Matthew Wittbrodt, a business freshman, said, "He knew what he was doing, spreading the good word and good debate, going to colleges, which are some of the more liberal places to do it. I really admire the courage he had."

Other speakers called Kirk a martyr. State Rep. Gina Johnson said his death was not in vain.

"Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and he is a martyr for the faith and his faith in Jesus Christ," Johnson said. "When a Christian is killed for their faith, that’s called martyrdom, and it bears fruit in the culture — people have more compassion, more courage to be honest, be truthful and to share it."

Meghan Noonan echoed that sentiment, saying Kirk was a martyr of faith telling the crowd to "not let his death be in vain."

Not everyone shared Kirk’s politics. Trajan Kopas, an economics junior, said he disagreed with much of what Kirk said but still came to pay respects.

"I don’t personally agree with a lot of the stuff Kirk said, but it’s still important to be here tonight," Kopas said. "We lost a great figure and a great man, a loving husband and father.”

Following his death yesterday, a quote of Kirk's remark saying "I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other god-given rights," has largely been circulated. 

"It’s hard knowing that he was taken by somebody with a gun," Alexandra Thompson, a sophomore in human biology, said. "I still support gun control, but not in the sense of taking guns away from everybody. Everyone has a Second Amendment right to protect themselves, but there should absolutely be background checks. Guns will always be in people’s hands, whether it’s legal or not."

Katie Smith, an MSU alumna who made custom Kirk merchandise for the vigil, said she viewed the circulation of the comment as political spin.

"I’ve seen it, and I think it’s part of the liberal ‘let’s grab onto something and hang on to that for dear life,’" Smith said. "I am a strong proponent of our Second and First Amendments. You can’t ban guns — the majority of crimes are committed by people who stole them or didn’t have the legal right to own them. With any product, there’s an acceptable risk, and I think that’s what he was talking about."

Turning Point MSU president Alex Bitzan closed the vigil by comparing Kirk’s death to other moments of national tragedy. He said that just as people remember where they were on 9/11 or when former President Donald Trump was shot, many would always remember hearing about Kirk’s death.

"These events stick out in our mind not just because they’re rare, but because they give us a glimpse into true malevolence," Bitzan said. "We can allow ourselves to be intimidated, or we can choose to behave as Kirk did… fight, fight, fight for the future of our nation."