1. Yesterday's shooting should be a wake up call to those who want to censor people. The 1st amendment and free speech among other things is a safety valve to allow people to vent their thoughts and feelings. It gives them an outlet to express their anger, hate, love, joy, etc.
2. Take that outlet away and you only repress those emotions. You don't change them, you don't magically create a new utopia.
3. All you do, is create time bombs. People will be heard. If they can't express them in an open and free public square they will express them in other ways.
4. The framers understood that. The public debate of all ideas from the high to the low, from the intelligent to the stupid, from the joyful to the hateful; allows everyone to have a voice and be a part of society.
5. This public, open and free square difuses the hate, the anger. It spreads the joy and love. It allows people to form communities in common cause and it allows the majority to agree on policies while giving the minority a sit at the table.
6. The 1st amendment produces elections instead of revolts and revolutions. It allows those on the edge to remain sane instead of making them consumed by their own thoughts and feelings without a safe way to express them.
7. Censorship is not a a quick easy way to produce utopia. It will lead to more and more problems; the longer it is in place. The longer people are repressed in thought and deed the bigger the explosion that ocurrs.
8. As has been shown with almost every tragedy in recent months the government can't save you. They continue to fail to stop these things before they happen, even when given the information.
9. It's time we return to what has worked in the past. Freedom of speech, freedom to protect ourselves, freedom to be free individuals with unique ideas, emotions and dreams.
