A University of Chicago expert on political violence said Charlie Kirk's death comes at a pivotal moment in America, and there are steps lawmakers need to take to steer the country away from chaos.

Political violence has risen sharply in recent years. Earlier this year two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot in their own homes; State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed and State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife survived.

Months earlier, an arsonist attacked the Pennsylvania governor's mansion as Democrat Josh Shapiro and his family slept.

Last year saw two attempts on President Donald Trump's life. In 2022, a man attacked the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in their home in San Francisco.

In 2020, a group of men angry about pandemic restrictions plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

"In the 20 years leading up to 2015 we had two incidents of political violence against elected officials. In the 10 years since, we have had 25. The numbers tell the story. And it is much more dangerous than it used to be," said U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)

University of Chicago Professor Robert Pape, who runs the school's Project on Security & Threats which tracks and studies incidents of political violence, said he considered their research to be a canary in the coalmine, issuing a warning when a situation becomes dangerous.

Pape said the first necessary step to deescalate national emotions in the wake of Kirk's fatal shooting is to hear condemnation from Democrats and constraint from Republicans.

In the last 24 hours, Pape said the response from politicians has been better than what he's used to seeing, but not sufficient for a moment in which political violence is not as unpopular as it used to be.

"The support for political violence on both the right and the left essentially seems to have doubled in the last year," he said.

But Pape said the majority of Americans, 70% to be exact, still reject political violence and incidents like Kirk's death are a chance to reset the conversation. And, he said, messaging matters.

"We have actually done testing of this language with people," said Pape. "And this does significantly help to move the needle down to reduce support for political violence."

Pape applauded statements from House Speaker Mike Johnson and California Governor Gavin Newsom and their focus on our collective status as Americans.

In the moments after the shooting, Newsom posted the attack on Kirk was "disgusting, vile and reprehensible," adding, "in the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form."

"We don't make it personal. We don't hold it against people, um, individually," Johnson said in the wake of the shooting. "We don't think of our friends and neighbors and fellow countrymen and even political opponents as enemies. We're all Americans and that's a really important message for all of us right now."

Pape said our future is not yet written and there's still an opportunity for change.

Pape's path forward in step two is to have politicians leave their party silos and go across the aisle to issue joint statements.

As an example, former presidents have unanimously condemned Kirk's shooting but Pape wants to see them issue a statement as a collective. He wants to see the same from members of Congress and other politicians of different parties.

On a smaller level, that has happened; Young Democrats of Connecticut and Connecticut Young Republicans came together to release one joint statement.