x-no-idiots: yes
On Sat, 03 Mar 2018 22:19:53 -0500, in talk.politics.guns Mr. B1ack
<
now...@nada.net> wrote:
> We really don't want to take your free speech/press,
> we're just tired of hearing you whine about your *rights*
> all the time :-)
I don't recall ever bringing it up. I have certainly not suggested
that I should never be held responsible for anything I might say or
write. Further, if harsh language were found to be killing 38,000
people a year, we might need to take a second look at it. If someone
were to kill 60 people by reading scripture from a hotel window,
perhaps we should reevaluate the wisdom of recognizing that as a
"right".
I would agree that we should discuss the idea of responsibility in all
areas of social interaction; I have no objection to looking at the
first amendment through that lens.
Virtually every civilized (i.e.: constitutional) country on the planet
has something like the first amendment codified into their founding
documents. It's in the Constitution of People's Republic of China:
Article 35 (official English translation) "Citizens of the People's
Republic of China shall exercise the freedom of speech, of the press,
of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration."
It's also found in Article 21 of the Constitution of Bolivia... go
ahead and pick a country founded on a constitution; it's probably
there.
There is exactly one country that provides unrestricted constitutional
protection for guns... in that country, they must arm their public
school teachers and conduct school "lockdown drills" periodically; in
that country they regularly enjoy massive public displays of gun
violence. It is time for us to take a long, hard look at the second
amendment and to decide if it's contributing anything positive to our
social order; if not, let's lose it.
I would have no objection to subjecting the first amendment to similar
scrutiny. Let's look at all of it and bring it into the 21st century;
the definition of "arms" has changed significantly since 1793 while
the meaning of "speech" has remained reasonably consistent, I'd
suggest.