Thirty percent of college students nationwide believe that using violence is an acceptable way to stop a controversial speaker at a campus event, according to a new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). The survey found that 3% of students believe violence is always acceptable, 12% said it is sometimes acceptable, and 16% said it is rarely acceptable to use violence to prevent a speaker from appearing on campus.
These findings come one year after conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a campus event on September 10, 2025. A FIRE survey conducted in the month following Kirk's assassination at Utah Valley University showed that 94% of UVU undergraduates stated it was never acceptable to use violence to stop a campus speech, compared to 81% the previous spring.
While the overall percentage of students finding violence acceptable has decreased from 34% in 2025, the current figure is up 10 points from four years prior. Seventy percent of students surveyed stated that violence is never an acceptable means to oppose a speaker. In contrast, 69% of students believe shouting down a speaker is acceptable, a decrease of three points from the previous year, but still seven points higher than four years ago.
Chapin Lenthall-Cleary, FIRE Data Analyst, noted that while the decrease in acceptance of violence is encouraging, "so long as students and outside speakers believe that voicing disagreement or sharing controversial views could get them hurt, speech will remain chilled on campuses." Lenthall-Cleary suggested that the decline in acceptance might be linked to students witnessing the consequences of such actions, referencing Kirk's assassination.
Historically, liberal students were more accepting of violence than conservative students, but recent trends show this gap has narrowed. "Now, liberal and conservative students are roughly equally accepting of violence," Lenthall-Cleary stated. "Mercifully, overall support for violence declined slightly this year, but over 30% of students still say it's at least rarely acceptable to use violence to stop a speaker."
The FIRE survey's findings are based on data collected from 62,997 undergraduate students enrolled in four-year degree programs at 262 colleges and universities nationwide. The organization also publishes a list ranking colleges based on their commitment to free speech and expression. According to the 2027 College Free Speech Rankings report, the University of Chicago, Claremont McKenna College, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan Technological University, and Vanderbilt University are listed as the top five institutions for free speech.