Free speech is fine as long as it isn’t being manipulated at the cost of other people. This is why I cannot support people who say whatever they want and then cry free speech when they start suffering consequences for their words. I will never condone violence and what happened to Kirk is a tragedy. Bit I think he has to accept the consequences of his actions regardless. People who celebrate his death are evil, I’ll say that. Our true enemy is never other people; it is always Satan and none other. I think all of us need to remind ourselves of that everyday.

The “free” in free speech means free from both interference and retaliation.

If there are acceptable consequences in society for saying the wrong thing, you do not have free speech.

I agree that celebrating someone's death is wrong. Where I think the debate gets interesting is deciding what counts as legitimate criticism and what counts as trying to silence views we dislike. Free speech has never meant freedom from criticism, but it also shouldn't depend on whether we approve of the person speaking.

Ya'll do realize that the 1st amendment only applies to government censorship, right?

Yeah, the First Amendment protects people from government punishment for speech. But that's a separate question from whether the speech is ethical, respectful, or socially beneficial. Someone can have the legal right to say something and still be criticized for saying it.

so can we say Robinson definitively took the shot that killed Charlie or are people still examining the fact that 30-06 does not make that small of an exit wound?

Kash is busy partying - so that will have to wait

The man with the gun. As it always has been.

Well, yeah… the constitution is entirely dedicated to setting the limits of the government’s power. There’s nothing in there about private citizens raping and murdering each other either. That’s not the purpose of the document.

Free speech is a much broader issue than simply the first amendment, and it is not relevant to this discussion. I think it’s likely that everyone else understood this, which is why no one brought up the first amendment except you.

“Josarion was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.” Joseph Heller(Catch-22)

Smart feller