Argument+Against+Heavy Metal+Censorship

=My Argument **__//AGAINST//__** Heavy Metal Censorship=

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America says: "CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW REPRESENTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR OF THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES."  But what happens when the government infringes our right of free speech, and attempt to censor heavy metal music, one of the most strong ways to exercise that right, then something is wrong in America. When government organizations such as the PMRC attempt to label and censor any form of music, this is going against our rights. We are being controlled by a machine known to create laws to contradict the Constitution in any form or matter, and the Louisiana House Bill 1236 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 do nothing more than that. I am going to take you on a journey on why I find heavy metal censorship unconstitutional to the last degree. And the reason why I find heavy metal censorship unconstitutional is because it suppresses the creativity and voice of the people, it goes against the rights of free speech, and the fact that the government's attempt to stereotype heavy metal musicians as "satanists and brain washers" came with no results whatsoever.

My first main point is that music censorship suppresses the creativity and self expression of the citizens, and I say this because censorship goes as far as making band t-shirts illegal, an an example of this is in Australia, where a 16-year-old boy was arrested for wearing a t-shirt for the the band "Cradle of Filth", in which the t-shirt was thought to offend religion. Censorship has gotten out of hand in other countries, and in a country like America, that has the freedoms of speech and religion, people should be able to express themselves and not fear retribution because of who or what they are. The freedom of religion was not only created to protect the religious identity of the people, but also to keep people from imposing the religious beliefs on others, and the banning of band t-shirts in America violates the First Amendment again.

My second main point is that these laws go against the Constitution. the First Amendment is in place to keep the government from controlling any aspect of the media, and since record companies are not owned by the federal government, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Louisiana House Bill 1236 violates our constitutional rights, for it is up to the record companies to decide for their listeners, and the RIAA reluctantly agreed to start using Parental Advisory labels on records deemed as "unpleasant."

My third and most important main point is that heavy metal was never proven to incite suicides and mass murders, and in fact, the government's attempts to censor heavy metal musicians failed because they couldn't prove their points, and they went as far as saying that their songs had "hidden messages." Heavy metal musicians Ozzy Osbourne and heavy metal band Judas Priest were sued because their songs were believed to caused two teenagers to commit suicide. The case was later dismissed because the plaintiffs couldn't prove that the songs incited acts of violence.

However, a counter argument(the MOST used counter argument, in my opinion) is that heavy metal