"Freedoming" Ourselves to Death, by Glenn Kirschner

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"Freedoming" Ourselves to Death, by Glenn Kirschner

Postby admin » Tue May 17, 2022 6:05 am

"Freedoming" Ourselves to Death: Unrestricted guns + unrestricted hate speech = today's America. Our government CAN tackle this
by Glenn Kirschner
Justice Matters
May 15, 2022



With yet another hate-fueled mass shooting, it's time our federal government stopped sitting on the sidelines and started fighting for the safety of the American people. Today's America is seeing the consequences of unrestricted access to assault rifles and other weapons of war, couple with unrestricted hate speech filling our airwaves designed to inspire and incite violence.

There is a whole-of-government approach to dealing with this deadly epidemic of hate-fueled gun violence: regulate, legislate, litigate.

This video discusses how the federal government can actually enter they fray and begin fighting for the safety of the American people.

so what do you get when you combine
unrestricted gun access
with unrestricted hate speech?
you get today's america.
let's talk about that.
because justice matters.
hey all, glenn kirschner here.
well i'm sure you've heard by now
about the prejudice-fueled
incident of domestic terrorism, the mass
shooting
in buffalo. here is the reporting from
cnn.
mass shooting at buffalo supermarket was
a racist hate crime, police say.
and that article begins:
a mass shooting at a supermarket in a
black neighborhood in buffalo new york
on saturday was a racist hate crime, and
will be prosecuted as such, buffalo
police commissioner joseph gamaglia said
sunday.
the evidence that we have uncovered so
far makes no mistake that this is an
absolute racist hate crime. it will be
prosecuted as a hate crime, he said.
this is someone who has hate in their
heart, soul, and mind. the statement came a
day after a gunman opened fire at the
tops friendly markets store
killing 10 people and wounding three.
11 of the people who were shot
were black.
you know,
we have a lot of
rights in america.
and people often equate those rights
with
freedoms.
you might even say they confuse rights
and freedoms.
you have the freedom
to own an arsenal of assault rifles,
weapons of war.
you have the freedom
to loudly express your hate of others
based on their race,
ethnicity, religion, orientation.
you have the freedom
to express that hate
as a means to marginalize,
demean, and
dehumanize
others.
are these things really properly
characterized as
freedoms?
some segments of america --
i would say the majority of the supreme
court justices, the nra, most republican
politicians --
worship at the altar of unrestricted gun
access.
some segments of america, like the fox
entertainment network and their ilk,
use freedom of speech protections to
worship at the altar of hate and
prejudice and xenophobia.
you know, if we really want all these
things, all these freedoms,
unrestricted gun access, unrestricted
hate speech,
then we just may
freedom
ourselves to death.

and friends, the horrifically sad part
about all this
is there so much that could be done by
government, but it's not being done.
you know, government has this paralyzing
fear
of doing anything
in the arena of
unrestricted access to weapons of war, in
the arena of
hate speech,
that inspires violence. doing anything
that could then be twisted, and contorted,
and used to accuse government
of trampling on my first amendment free
speech rights;
trampling on my second amendment right
to bear arms.
and it is this paralyzing fear,
of that criticism
that
keeps government from doing anything,
and just allowing unrestricted access to
assault rifles, to weapons of war, and
allowing our airwaves to be filled with
unrestricted hate speech designed to
inspire violence.
how about the federal government set
aside the fear of criticism, and just
start fighting
for the safety of the american people?
what does that look like? i have long
said there are three things that we can
do:
we can regulate; we can legislate; and
then
we litigate.
what do i mean by that? first of all,
regulate.
we use an all of government approach;
every single agency
in the executive branch,
from
health and human services, department of
homeland security, the fcc, commerce, labor,
department of education, an all of
government approach, and executive orders
by the president,
all designed
to get at
gun violence, and unrestricted access to
weapons of war,
and
hate speech filling our airwaves
designed
to inspire violent conduct.
an all of government approach in the
executive branch to start flooding the zone.
then we legislate. we go over
to congress.
congress should enact every and any law
it can
designed to get at those two
issues: unrestricted access to weapons of
war
and
unrestricted hate speech, that is
inspiring violence every day,
particularly filling our airwaves.
and after we regulate,
we flood the zone trying to protect the
american people.
then
we litigate.
because the regulations,
and the legislation, will undoubtedly be
attacked. "oh, you're trampling on my first
amendment, second amendment rights." bring
it on.
because if we have regulated, and
legislated thoughtfully and carefully,
and in a way that honors the
constitution,
then we embrace that litigation --
right? -- we go into court and we fight it
out.
and what's the worst that can happen?
only two things can happen friends.
we
win the litigation,
in which case we have protected the
american people significantly, or
we lose the litigation, but we still win.
you know why?
because if we lose litigation,
if judges say, you know, we
understand why you regulated the way you
did,
but you ran afoul
of the constitutional rights of citizens
in the following ways. or we understand
why you legislated the way you did, but
here's how you may have run afoul, or
overstepped, your constitutional bounds.
we take those rulings, we go back, we
retool, and we do it again.
we get it right
after we hear
from the third co-equal branch of
government, the judiciary, as part of the
litigation process. so if we win, we win,
and if we lose, we win in the long term.
because we learn how to regulate and
legislate in a way that passes
constitutional muster, while protecting
the american people.
you know, nobody said governing was going
to be easy.
but these things we must do.
for too long we have just refused to
take the first step on the road
to really addressing
unrestricted access to weapons of war,
unrestricted hate speech
on our airwaves that is inciting
violence every day.
there's no excuse
to decline to take that first step
in the quest to protect the american
people.
that's what government should be doing.
all of government.
regulate; legislate; litigate.
because justice
matters.
friends, as always, please stay safe,
please stay tuned, and i look forward to
talking with you all again
tomorrow.
admin
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