The impact of violence over the past year is raising concerns for southern Minnesotans on both sides of the aisle.

On Thursday, Minnesota state legislators and southern Minnesota residents said the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was troubling, coming after a summer of events like the shooting of two state legislators in June, and a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school two weeks ago.

“I think it does show that there’s a lot of divide in the United States right now,” said state Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls. “If you had told me three or four months ago that we would have some of our legislators shot, I’d have said that isn’t going to happen in Minnesota. It happened in Minnesota.”

“It is an alarming trend,” said Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska. “I am old enough to remember the series of assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK. There was a time when assassinations, and assassination attempts were common. This seems to be a bit different. It is driven by stark political difference, but going to violence is just deplorable.”

“It’s obviously sad whenever you’re seeing this anywhere, whether it’s Melissa Hortman or Charlie Kirk, or anyone in the political realm,” said Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent. “I believe our political discourse is strong enough that we can disagree with someone, and acknowledge that they’re human.”

Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday during a speaking event at a Utah college. On August 27, two children were killed and 21 others injured in a shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis. On June 14, state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot at their homes.

“I was close to Rep. Melissa Hortman,” Torkelson said. “I spent a lot of time with her. Though she was from the other side of the aisle and we disagreed, she was a leader to be admired for her commitment to her work.”

On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Howe, the key note speaker at Marshall’s community 9/11 memorial program, asked community members to keep Kirk’s family in their prayers.

“To stop chaos like what happened yesterday, we have to start looking at one another and being kind, and trying to help one another,” said Howe, R-Rockville.

Holly Lamote, co-chair of the Lyon County Republicans, said the news about Kirk’s death was “just devastating,” and she was saddened for Kirk’s family.

“He was a voice of reason, and a good role model for young people,” Lamote said.

Lamote said she listened to Kirk’s podcast, and said he was a good model for topics like family and faith.

“He liked true debate,” she said.

Lamote said it seemed like targeting political figures for violence has become more common.

“It’s so senseless,” she said. “Violence is not the answer.”

“It is really disheartening and disappointing to happen,” Brown County Republican Chairman Greg Bartz said in response to Kirk’s murder. “Especially when [Kirk] was trying to carry on a civil debate. That’s what our country was founded on. We try to make progress that way, not through violence.”

Bartz said some political speech and begun to turn violent and threatening in recent years, but he believed it was better to express ideas without the threat of violence.

Bartz also believed this was a mental health issue.

“There are people who are mentally disturbed. They might have the mistaken idea that violence will change things their way, but normally it doesn’t,” he said.

“Violence in our society — whether that be school shootings or political assassinations — is spiraling out of control,” said Lyon County DFL Chairwoman Anita Gaul. “We need to tone down the rhetoric on both sides and work on real solutions to our problems and divisions. We need something beyond thoughts and prayers. Tangible action is what we need to effect change.”

“The DFL party stands against using violence to voice disagreement who has different political views,” Brown County DFL Chairwoman Lori Sellner said.

Sellner said the current state of political violence is very concerning to members of the DFL because people now have to worry about safety and security when attending events.

“On a personal side we are losing people we care about,” she said. “If you are active in politics it has been hard to accept that we can no longer have disagreement and handle them through discourse without turning to violence.”

Sellner said she still believed in democracy and believed the people surrounded her believed in it too. She believed most people were able to have civil conversations with people they disagreed with and that gave her hope.

Sellner believed that for the recent political violence to end, it was on the people and leaders to set better examples and tone down their language. Sellner said she has seen posts from people not involved in politics that glorified violence or agreed with violent acts if it hurt people they did not agree with.

“It is frustrating to see that from people,” she said. “It is also disheartening to see people becoming desensitized to it. Once that happens it is hard to go back.”

“I’m just very disappointed that anybody is being shot,” said Marshall resident Al Kruse. “Rhetoric today is over the top too often.”

At the same time, he said, Americans need to take some kind of action to prevent violence.

“It’s so frustrating that nothing happens,” Kruse said.

“I condemn the rise in political violence and gun violence in general,” said Garret Ebling, a member of the leadership team of the non-partisan, pro-democracy group Indivisible New Ulm. “Indivisible New Ulm always and continues to promote non-violence and open dialogue. We believe that everyone should be free to gather and express their beliefs without fear of violence.

“A workable path forward only happens with active listening and empathy. We implore the leaders in our country to demonstrate those qualities with words and actions that unite, not divide,” Ebling said.

Dahms said he thought the incidents of violence this year came from “a culmination of a lot of things going on,” not all of them political. But he said he didn’t know what would happen in the future.

Both Torkelson and Swedzinski said they thought it would be important to address the issue of mental health, to help prevent the rise of violence.

“That’s a big conversation in St. Paul and in Washington, D.C.,” Swedzinski said. But there likely aren’t simple solutions, he said.

“From my perspective to really stop these events, the perpetrators need to be be identified before it happens and have a system that reaches out to these people to take action to prevent it,” Torkelson said.

Torkelson said with the recent school shooting in the Twin Cities, the perpetrator had posted online about it beforehand, and there were warnings.

Torkelson said the security training he has been involved in recommends people get to know their neighbors. That will help in case of an emergency.

Dahms said he has had some constituents contact him on the topic of gun control, especially after the Annunciation Catholic School shooting.

“Since the school shooting, we’ve had a lot of calls and a lot of emails, basically on both sides of the (gun control) issue,” he said.

Torkelson said it was possible Gov. Tim Walz would call a special session for gun legislation, but he is not certain if the special session will happen or if legislators would take action.

“I know in the Senate, the votes are not there for a lot of the things the governor wants,” Dahms said.

— Clay Schuldt contributed to this story.