11-01-2018, 04:44 PM
(10-31-2018, 05:43 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(10-30-2018, 01:18 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: A challenge has come for Republicans and supporters of Trump, past or present. Trump stirred up this guy Bowers into hatred of immigrants. This Jewish congregation had been helping them. The Trump era is rife with conspiracy theories and neo-Nazi anti-semite movements in the USA. Meanwhile, Trump and the GOP block any bills to limit or prohibit sales of AR-15s and other weapons of war which make mass shootings like this one so frequent. The voters need to hold Trump and the Republicans responsible now for this mayhem. Failure to do so is a judgement upon them.
I do think there is a spiral of rhetoric which precedes the spiral of violence. Hate speech, including Trump's, does increase the chances of lone nuts going active. People who try to fight such hate speech are called Social Justice Warriors and as limiting free speech, but you can see them trying to preserve lives.
Traditionally, you cannot limit a constitutional right without due process. A trial that leaves someone a felon certainly counts. Would a professional finding that someone is a threat to others suffice? How much legal formality would have to be applied to give such a finding force of law? The Supreme Court would have to answer that one, but that seems a step short of repealing the Second that might be worked towards.
It seems that most lone nuts before they went on their shooting sprees first used hate speech, in person or on social media. Would people support this being sufficient for a professional trained shrink to ban weapons ownership? Does anyone think such bans would be effective?
There are two criteria that can limit speech through preemption: slander and incitement to riot/violence. The first seems a bit pathetic given the nature of the speech, so incitement is will have to be. Is it adequate when the inciting party leaves enough wiggle room to claim a lack of intent? I don't know, but that's Trump's MO from way back. He might be tried after the fact for hate speech too, but, again, he's careful to avoid the direct link.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.