Your 1st Amendment Rights and This Forum - Read this.

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EddieCoyle

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Censorship is defined as follows:

"The suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a censor."

Yeah. We practice censorship, and we do it for a good reason.

One of the goals of this site is to promote and preserve our 2nd Amendment rights. The best way to do this is to get as many people involved in shooting as possible. Like it or not, acting like a bunch of idiots is contrary to this goal.

We have all kinds of people stopping by here for a variety of reasons. The more that stay, the better it is for all of us. If you post something that we think will drive people away, we're going to remove it.

However, if one of us deletes your post or issues you an infraction, please don't accuse us of denying you your 1st Amendment rights. We've heard it dozens of times, and it sounds like whining every time.

Here's the text of the 1st Amendment:

The Bill Of Rights said:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Look at the first word there. NES isn't Congress - NES is private property. Everybody here with the exception of Derek is a guest.

The best analogy I can come up with is that NES is like a big party at Derek's house. You're all invited, and everybody is having a good time. A mod is a combination waiter and bouncer. If you need something, ask a waiter and he or she will get it for you. Start smashing bottles or pissing on the furniture, and a bouncer will ask you to knock it off. Keep it up, and you'll get thrown out.

A green membership does not entitle you to do whatever you want. Think of it as being at the party, and chipping in for the pizza and beer. Just because you helped pay for the Old Milwaukee doesn't mean you can scream F-bombs out the window at the neighbors.

As far as censorship goes, if you post something objectionable, it's going to get deleted. Not by Congress, but by a mod or admin. Your First Amendment rights are still intact - If you can't live with having your post deleted, you're still free to start your own forum and post whatever the hell you want on it.

We've posted some guidelines to try to define what we mean by 'objectionable', but keep in mind that the posting guidelines do not cover everything. The mods take the Potter Stewart approach - "Objectionable is hard to define, but I know it when I see it".
 
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