I think the world was a worse place for Kirk's influence, whatever it amounted to. I think the circumstances of his death and the reporting on it are deeply ironic. But I can't feel joy at his murder. I just feel sick and anxious.

What I feel is nausea about the ongoing destabilization of American life and institutions. What I feel is worry about the danger so many people are in right now, the backlash this event is likely to cause, and the way this will fuel an acceleration of Trump's illegal military occupations of American cities whose citizens or officials Trump finds politically disagreeable. And in the back of my mind I also wonder what will become of Kirk's children, who are very young.

But I can't summon either glee or grief. All I've got is irony and deep unease, at least for now.

I disagree with him about gun ownership, but he didn’t want to disarm in order to prevent all gun deaths. He made the point at the time that we don’t take cars off the road to stop car deaths. It’s a reasonable point.

Re: DC national guard, from what I’ve seen rough neighbourhoods in DC were very happy with additional policing, particularly in gang areas, while middle class people who were less affected seemed mainly angry about it.