COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been corrected to reflect that the person involved was not an MU student.

The University of Missouri said Thursday that it is investigating a person for comments made during a Turning Point USA "Pick up the Mic" session on Speakers Circle.

During the session Wednesday hosted by Shane Winnings, Chloe Carter came to the mic to discuss the First and Second Amendments.

"It is worth it to have a couple gun deaths every couple years to keep our Second Amendment right," Carter said.

Winnings responded with "I agree."

The conversation then moved to talk about Charlie Kirk when the person said that Charlie Kirk would have agreed and "died by his word."

Winnings then said that Kirk died with the same mindset, calling it a conviction, and recommended the student "finds out what that means one day."

Winnings asked if Carter was "for people being killed for freedom of speech."

Carter responded with "yeah, absolutely."

In a social media post, the university commented that it will investigate Carter and will "hold the individual to account." An MU spokesperson later said that Carter is not a student and has been trespassed from campus.

Zach Greenberg, Director of faculty legal defense with the FIRE organization, said that the First Amendment protects any discussions of violence. The only time it does not, is when it falls into a category of true threat.

"The First Amendment protects, calls for violence, discussions of violence, even justifications for the moral propriety of violence," said Greenberg. "It protects speech unless it falls into the narrow protected category of a true threat: the serious intent to commit unlawful violence, direct, imminent, specific."

Greenberg said technically Carter's comments did not violate the First Amendment; however, the university trespassing on Carter could be a violation of her First Amendment rights because it is a government state university.

"I think that's a punishment that government inflicting for the exercise of someone's free speech rights, so their student are not student you shouldn't be punished for expressing yourself," said Greenberg.

Carter could potentially take legal action against the university for being trespassed from a public campus, according to Greenberg.

"I think if the university were to say to ban the speaker from campus, you know, maybe a no-contact order, or a trespass order, it would be problematic if it's based on the students' or the speaker's protected speech," said Greenberg.

The university says the Columbia Police Department and FBI have been contacted, in addition to the University of Missouri Police Department.

"We denounce any form of violence, and it is totally unacceptable to wish harm upon a person for exercising their First Amendment rights. This is a very serious matter for which we've launched a full investigation. We will hold the individual to account," the university stated in a social media post.

State Sen. Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) criticized Carter's statements in an X post.

"This is deeply sick behavior (and so were the words). If you see someone acting like this at Mizzou (or anywhere) you should absolutely call them out for it," Webber wrote.

Carter said that she knew she was taking a risk stepping up to the mic, but did not realize how far people would take the backlash.

"I didn’t expect the situation to get quite this large. I knew that what I was doing was provocative and that there would be some kind of backlash, but this has really caught on in right-wing social media," said Carter. "Honestly, the worst part is that people are coming after everyone associated with me as well."

Carter criticized the backlash, saying that right-wing media figures frequently talk about and celebrate violence, such as the death of George Floyd, Israel's attacks in Palestine and shooting deaths tied to ICE agents.

"These are the people who were anti-cancel culture in the late 2010s and the people who are supposedly the strongest supporters of the first amendment, but you see them here calling for me to be expelled, fired, imprisoned, and even killed," said Carter. "People often forget that the American right is an ideology based entirely off of the normalization of violence and oppression."