I'll withhold judgment until I see what this guy actually posted.
•willful threat of a crime which would result in great bodily injury;
•specific intent that the statement be taken as a threat, whether or not the perpetrator intended to carry it out;
•the threat, under the circumstances, conveyed a “gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat”;
•the threat actually caused the person threatened to be in sustained fear; and
•the threatened person’s fear was reasonable under the circumstances.
Everyone is rushing to his aid but if he posted something like, "MY PERMIT IS TAKING TOO LONG! I'M GONNA KILL THE CHIEF WHEN I GET MY GUN!"
Then, suddenly, it seems like perhaps the chief may have been on to something.
Unless the speech itself is a crime, denying the permit because of it makes me sick. And, if the speech itself was a crime, why didn't the Chief have the guy arrested?
And the Second Amendment is entirely separate from the First.
I'm not OK with the use of simple speech to deny the permit
"Preoccupation with firearms"???
If you live in a small town, there are a couple of things to remember:
1. The police chief knows who you are, who your dad is, your mom is, and probably most of your close relatives...
To expand philosophically, I'm not so sure that in the long-run, our society can survive on written-law enforced by bureaucracy alone. Informal relationships among "the good-guys" may be required too.
Putting paranoia aside, Government can and does access information on individuals from the internet. The technology to track an individual through his ISP address is available and likely in use by various agencies. The legality of using the info obtained in this manner is debatable IMO. I don't see this as much different than tapping your phone; although probably not illegal when it involves a forum such as THR since we're putting it out in a public domain, but gaining access to e-mails, etc., has to be an invasion of privacy. I plan to keep to posting anything that IMO can't lead to identity theft, or some other negative ramifications.Does this help answer the question of whether your forum postings can be used against you?
That was Erwin Rommel.You know; the Desert Fox...