Dear Connecticut...

[Dave W]

How many deaths has Westboro Baptist caused?  Where does it say in the Constitution you have the right not to be offended?

It's a short stretch from banning legal albeit wacko shenanigans to limiting other forms of protest.  I'd like to see the First Amendment given the same deference that the Second receives.

I agree 100%. It's legal for them to demonstrate; they took one of the cases against them all the way to the Supreme Court and won. It's also legal for others to form a chain in between them and mourners.

Fred Phelps (the minister and founder of Westboro Baptist) is a disbarred lawyer. The law firm he founded in Topeka has five attorneys -- all of them Phelps family members and members of the church. You illegally disrupt their protest, they sue and win and collect attorneys' fees under a civil rights statute. That's what they're counting on. And if you sue them for defamation, they defend and you lose on First Amendment grounds.

It's a con, whether or not they actually believe their supposed theology.

They don't always come when they say they will; I hope they don't this time. They have been threatened with physical harm over their protests at military funerals. In those cases the deceased were not well known outside of family and friends. In this case, you have child (and adult) victims of a mass murderer, everything is widely known and feelings are running strong. If they really do protest in Newtown, they may provoke violence.

BTW, they blame Carrie Underwood for the Newtown murders because "she pimped fag marriage."

[Pilgrim]

How many deaths has Westboro Baptist caused?  Where does it say in the Constitution you have the right not to be offended?

It's a short stretch from banning legal albeit wacko shenanigans to limiting other forms of protest.  I'd like to see the First Amendment given the same deference that the Second receives.

I am in mind of the fact that the first amendment may guarantee freedom of speech, but it doesn't specify where that speech needs to take place.  I'd designate a spot for the Westboro demonstration a few miles away from the event they're protesting, and make darn sure they confined their demonstration to that spot.  Preferably the middle of a field with no one within earshot.  I'd love to see a city council pass an ordinance specifying that they can designate the location of the demonstration.  It works for college campuses.

[Dave W]

I am in mind of the fact that the first amendment may guarantee freedom of speech, but it doesn't specify where that speech needs to take place.  I'd designate a spot for the Westboro demonstration a few miles away from the event they're protesting, and make darn sure they confined their demonstration to that spot.  Preferably the middle of a field with no one within earshot.  I'd love to see a city council pass an ordinance specifying that they can designate the location of the demonstration.  It works for college campuses.

They can only do so much. Some cities have passed ordinances designating a certain number of feet away, but forcing them out of earshot would probably result in yet another lawsuit lost by a city and its taxpayers.

[Pilgrim]

They can only do so much. Some cities have passed ordinances designating a certain number of feet away, but forcing them out of earshot would probably result in yet another lawsuit lost by a city and its taxpayers.

The city officials in Newtown might welcome that as an alternative to having the Westboro group close enough to be heard.

[Highlander]

... Organized religion has caused way more death than handguns, assualt rifles and atomic bombs combined...

The only word I disagree with I have struck through - every other word is historically correct and strongly agreed...

[dadagoboi]

I am in mind of the fact that the first amendment may guarantee freedom of speech, but it doesn't specify where that speech needs to take place.  I'd designate a spot for the Westboro demonstration a few miles away from the event they're protesting, and make darn sure they confined their demonstration to that spot.  Preferably the middle of a field with no one within earshot.  I'd love to see a city council pass an ordinance specifying that they can designate the location of the demonstration.  It works for college campuses.

Perhaps we could do the same with gun owners.  Force them to live on some island where only gun owners are allowed.  After all the second amendment doesn't say anything about WHERE you have the right to carry a gun legally.

[rahock]

Westboro Baptist isn't so much a church as it is a group of con artists, mostly related to each other, who protest hoping they can sue someone for violating their civil rights. I doubt there are many people out there who consider them to be representative of anyone other than themselves.

They count on the restraint of decent people not to attack them. One of these days, though, they might find themselves victims of a lynch mob. If they really protest at the funerals of innocent children, this just might push some upstanding citizens over the edge.

They were recently in Dearborn , MI (largest mideastern population outside the mideast) to protest for the Christian students in Dearborn schools who were supposedly experiencing acts of discrimination by Muslim students. It really wasn't happening, or at least to no great extent. All the citys' resources were tied up. More police vehicles , police and bomb squad gear than I ever knew they had. It was pretty much a nonevent. This is an area where the Christian and Muslim population has lived together since the 60s without a whole lot of problems. The general view of the population was "who is this shmuck outsider coming in here and telling us how to live . F you and the horse you rode in on". My hat is off to Dearborn .
Rick

[Dave W]

Perhaps we could do the same with gun owners.  Force them to live on some island where only gun owners are allowed.  After all the second amendment doesn't say anything about WHERE you have the right to carry a gun legally.

Point well made, Carlo. But too subtle 

[rahock]

Perhaps we could do the same with gun owners.  Force them to live on some island where only gun owners are allowed.  After all the second amendment doesn't say anything about WHERE you have the right to carry a gun legally.

Or, we could vote to determine whether the gun owners or the gun controllers were the majority.The majority would get to stay here and the minority would have to go to that island. At this point, I think the gun owners might be staying. In any event, gun owners could kill one another with guns and the gun controllers would have to kill one another with rocks and clubs, and they would. Make no mistake, it's the technology that has evolved, not mankind .
Rick

[nofi]

the N.R.A. has gone silent and removed its facebook page. i thought these guys would welcome a dust up to push their agenda. i guess not. cowards.

[Denis]

the N.R.A. has gone silent and removed its facebook page. i thought these guys would welcome a dust up to push their agenda. i guess not. cowards.

What could they possibly say?

[dadagoboi]

Or, we could vote to determine whether the gun owners or the gun controllers were the majority.The majority would get to stay here and the minority would have to go to that island. At this point, I think the gun owners might be staying. In any event, gun owners could kill one another with guns and the gun controllers would have to kill one another with rocks and clubs, and they would. Make no mistake, it's the technology that has evolved, not mankind .
Rick

People who claim they own guns because BAD people own guns might have to figure out where they preferred to be.

A mass murder event by a rock, club or even knife armed individual seems fairly unlikely. 

[gweimer]

You know, with all of this debate, has anyone asked the obvious question? 

--- Why would a woman with an unstable son have multiple weapons in the house?  ---

You know, the Mayans may be right this week, for all the wrong reasons.   

[Aussie Mark]

Perhaps we could do the same with gun owners.  Force them to live on some island where only gun owners are allowed.

They already do - it's called "North America" :-)

[rahock]

People who claim they own guns because BAD people own guns might have to figure out where they preferred to be.

A mass murder event by a rock, club or even knife armed individual seems fairly unlikely. 

If there were to be some place that really had no guns, I would be happy to be there
Mass murder by bombs is pretty popular these days. People do bad things to one another. Take away one means and they will find another.
Being one of those people who claim they own a gun because bad people own guns, well let's just say unpleasant experience  brought me to that decision.  I don't hunt. I could not kill an animal in anything but self defense. I love animals, they have never done anything to harm me and I would not kill one for all the money in the world in anything but a self defense situation. People HAVE done bad things to me but I still wouldn't kill one of them in anything but a self defense situation either. If someone doesn't like guns , they have nothing to fear from me, I don't want to hurt anyone. I am capable and will defend myself and my loved ones if need be, and that is all.
Rick