No of course not when done properly..Even though I do find it hard to watch when I have to retire a flag! My post was directed towards the anti-american acid flashback 60s wannabes doing the unthinkable against a country who's brave men and women fought and died for their freedom and to see the disgrace the flag in this way makes me sick. I even have a problem when I see a flag touching the ground or a flag flying at night without a light on it!!!
Admirable sentiments, but the first amendment stands. Think about the days when President Clinton took daily bashing here on FR. He represented the country as our president. Yet we were free to criticize, lampoon, burn in effigy, and otherwise berate him. To some Americans, the office of the Presidency is just as important as the flag. Yet both your right to criticize the president and someone else's right to burn the flag (albeit not yours, or a publicly owned one) is protected. If you harm someone who is burning the flag, you are violating his first amendment rights. I would expect the police to arrest you.
I had some degree of admiration for a FReeper I once encountered who said he had gone to jail because of a similar case, and he had taken his punishment with his head held high. But he knew he had broken the law.
I have no love for those jerks either. I think they're narrow-minded, egotistical, gimme-brat punks who need to get their butts kicked so hard that they won't be able to sit down for a month of Sundays.
All the same, I am leery of any law that seeks to outlaw not an action, but an attitude. We've already seen the fallout from the idiotic "hate speech" laws that the Leftists have put on the books. I would just as soon not see Conservatives sign on for laws that are identical in principle and application.