If guns are protected by the Bill of Rights, surely pictures of "crosshairs" are too

Ban Ban

by digby

Uhm, this is dumb:

Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pennsylvania, said he will introduce legislation making it a federal crime for a person to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a Member of Congress or federal official.
Brady's decision to offer the legislation comes less than 24 hours after a gunman attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, in a shooting that claimed the lives of a federal judge, and a nine year-old girl, among others.

"The president is a federal official," Brady said in a telephone interview with CNN. "You can't do it to him; you should not be able to do it to a congressman, senator or federal judge.

I'm all for pointing out the fact that the right is making a huge profit selling liberal eliminationism to angry people inclined to see anyone who doesn't agree with them as an enemy of the people. But let's get real. This is just silly. What's next? Outlawing the word "shoot"?

The problem isn't the words and images in the abstract. The problem is that people are using them in a climate in which a whole bunch of people believe that their political rivals are illegitimate --- including a president quite a few literally believe is illegitimate. And, by the way, many of them are packing heat and making not so subtle threats to kill their political enemies. Outlawing words and pictures won't change that. Outlawing guns won't change that. This is a social and cultural problem being fed by some very big players who stand to benefit from this environment. And it isn't the alienated right. Not that they know that.

Update: Ok. This is even dumber.
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