"It is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to shoot indiscriminately. Target only politicians and their staff and leave regular citizens alone.”.
Conveiniently?
I followed the rules of copyright law I didn't edit a thing...
I believe an apology is in order...
"It is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to shoot indiscriminately. Target only politicians and their staff and leave regular citizens alone.”.
What if he were a Muslim US citizen? Would we be so quick to defend this as free speech? I think they are doing the right thing here, investigate. If it turns out he's just a blowhard idiot, no harm done. If he is in need of mental health professionals, get them for him.
Context is everything. What he said may be ill-advised hyperbole, but it does not appear to be a threat. If, instead of merely advocating it, he had claimed that he was planning to commit mass murder, that would have been an actual threat. If he were standing directly outside of the Capitol building, stirring up an angry crowd of NARAL members or radical environmentalists or New York Times columnists, all holding pitchforks and/or guns, that might legitimately be construed as an actual threat.
Sitting behind a keyboard in his mother's basement and writing the words that he wrote is not - rather, that is speech protected under the first amendment.
Just as many here have suggested that the world would be a better place if Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro were no longer breathing air, those are not actual threats - it's not the same as if those posters were claiming that they themselves were planning or intending to kill Chavez or Castro, which would appear to be actual threats.