The assassination of popular conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an open-air college rally is reviving calls for greater school security to protect students and block efforts to curb controversial free-speech events because safety can’t be guaranteed.
Kirk’s shooting last week by an alleged left-wing critic at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, has raised questions about security on college campuses.
Many reports have indicated that campuses are not staffed or well-funded enough to station police around events, including rooftops. Police have said that Kirk’s alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, shot from a rooftop perch 175 to 200 yards away.
Legal watchdog and former security expert John Banzhaf, a George Washington University law professor, on Monday offered up inexpensive and simple solutions for strengthening security that campuses could follow.
In a plan shared with Secrets and later posted online, Banzhaf said campuses must do better to lock doors and access points, arm police with weapons, and even fly drones over outdoor events.
“A lesson which should have been learned months earlier, when Donald Trump was shot and almost killed by a sniper who was apparently able to climb onto the top of a nearby rooftop within rifle range of where the former president was speaking, obviously wasn’t followed at UVU,” he said, referencing the 2024 Butler assassination attempt.
WHAT WE ALL SHOULD LEARN
Additional Lessons From Charlie Kirk’s Murder
Outdoor Surveillance, Campus Venues, and
Lockable Classroom Doors
Public Interest Law Professor John Banzhaf
George Washington University Law Schoolhttps://t.co/ahPI9NUuko pic.twitter.com/55hDR5ggzU— John Banzhaf (@ProfBanzhaf) September 15, 2025
Banzhaf, long an advocate of high schools and colleges using bullet-proof classroom doors lockable from the inside, said rooftop access during Kirk’s event should have been locked.
“While stationing officers on all rooftops within rifle range of an outdoor speaker may be possible only when the Secret Service protects a sitting president, there are simple and reasonable steps which a university can and should take,” he said, and limiting access is one.
Drone use is another. “Even one inexpensive airborne drone could have provided advance warning of the shooter by furnishing clear close-up views of the roof from which he shot and other buildings within rifle range,” he added in a blog post.
Some have raised fears that the praise Robinson has received from left-wing online agitators could lead to copycat attacks. Banzhaf is concerned that security worries could shut down free-speech events at colleges and universities.
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“Universities may become reluctant to continue serving their very important and time-honored function of providing venues for hosting political and other controversial events by refusing to stage many, by demanding payment for any added security measures which may be required, or at very least deterring visits of controversial speakers by requiring them to sign waivers of legal liability — similar to those often demanded of skiers and gym users — including acknowledging the inherent risks which cannot be completely avoided,” Banzhaf warned.
“Since well established principles of academic freedom effectively prevent universities from requiring visiting speakers not to say anything which might be considered controversial, universities may be more inclined to permit only the most bland to speak, thereby preventing their students from hearing both or all sides and arguments on the most important topics of the day — which, of course, tend to be controversial,” he added.