Thirty percent of college students say violence acceptable way to stop speakers on campuses, survey finds

A new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has found that 30% of college students nationwide believe using violence is an acceptable way to stop a controversial speaker at a campus event.

The survey, which was conducted in the month after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a speaker who was killed during a college event in 2025, found that 3% of students said it was always acceptable to use violence, 12% said it was sometimes acceptable, and 16% said it was rarely acceptable. However, the data also shows that the percentage of students who believe violence is acceptable has declined from last year, with 34% holding this view in 2025.

Despite the decline, the survey found that 69% of students nationwide believe that shouting down a speaker is acceptable, which is down three points from last year. However, this figure is still up seven points from four years ago.

FIRE's Data Analyst, Chapin Lenthall-Cleary, noted that while the percentage of students who find it acceptable to answer speech with violence has decreased, speech will remain chilled on campuses as long as students and outside speakers believe that voicing disagreement or sharing controversial views could get them hurt.

The survey also found that the assassination of Charlie Kirk had a lasting effect on free speech on the campus of Utah Valley University, where 94% of students said it was never acceptable to use violence to stop a campus speech.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has been tracking free speech on college campuses for several years, and its 2027 College Free Speech Rankings report ranks the top five schools for free speech as the University of Chicago, Claremont McKenna College, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan Technological University, and Vanderbilt University.