Quote:
Originally Posted by Mojo_PeiPei
What rights were thrown out the windows here SATS? This MORON threatened the life of the President of the United States, not cool.
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How do YOU know it was a real threat? How do you know what context it was used in? Were you there?
So you've never ONCE in your life said to anyone that you were gonna kill them, or another person jokingly or not? Are you the type of person to call the cops on your friends if they joke around like that with you? If so, then yeah, I could see how one would be anal about this... but otherwise, c'mon. Use some common sense and stop thinking everything is so black and white.
Of course, we don't know this guy, so there is definitely the possibility he had devised a big plot to actually shoot the president, but chances are he was joking like people normally do.
The only reason the SS was called was because his peers were fans of Bush. That's all. To be honest, what he said wasn't even a threat. He didn't say "I WILL do it." he said "IF"... "If I had enough bullets, I'd shoot him myself". Considering you only need ONE to do the trick, how much is enough? Clearly he was just babbling on and poses no threat. However, I wasn't there, so I don't know. I would LOVE to read everything he said in it's entirety though... because I guarantee you it was just casual "blah blah I hate Bush" talk as opposed to an actual assassination plot.
But... seeing as how we're living in times where people are SO divided that speaking out against Bush could result in things like getting fired, it's not surprising that saying something like this would get totally taken out of context and misconstrued to be something more serious than it is. It's not the fact that this guy made a "threat", it's the fact that people are ridiculously anal and will do anything to get back at those who don't support their country and blindly follow the leader in anything he says does. There are "patriots" out there who seriously believe that if you don't support Bush, you're a traitor/terrorist.
THAT is what people refer to when they talk about rights/free speech getting trampled on, not the fact that someone else can't openly "threaten" someone else. You know this.
Yes, I completely understand the fact that in this day and age people cannot afford to "be idle" when they hear "threats", but does that mean that people should completely dismiss their common sense?
Just like with what I said above before it was edited... was that a threat? No, it was not. Technically, yes IF that was all you read, but if someone took the 2 extra seconds to read what I said BEFORE and AFTER, you could clearly see that it was not. I'm willing to bet any amount of money that had we heard what this guy said before and after, it would turn out the same way.
I'm not completely dismissing the possibility that he was serious.. I'm just saying it's not likely.