Flag burning should be illegal on public property on U.S. soil without being sanctioned by gov't.

I don't see where an insult to the government or the citizens of America warrants an arrest and amendment to the constitution." I do. "People who protest the government are thrown in jail in countries like China, or hitting more at home with America's plights, Iraq or Afghanistan." True. "As a nation that supports and protects our free speech, our right to petition the government, the United States should surely let us exercise our ability to think for ourselves (we don't need to hold the government's hand to make decisions), we should allow our citizens to burn the flag." Freedom of speech and freedom of petition do not lead to freedom of combustion. Burning the American flag is burning the symbol of America, which is worse than just talking trash about America. "We should be a strong enough country to accept criticism; especially from our own citizens." I'll attack this point later. "What my opponent doesn't realize is that banning the ability of an American citizen to burn a flag openly on US soil is a much greater insult." Technically, public property is controlled by the government; if the government doesn't want things burned on its property, things don't get burned on its property. "This would be a slap in the face to America's image as a free country that embraces criticism from its citizen with an open mind for change in order to fix the problems such a drastic act as burning a flag might have sparked. This would be a much bigger insult to America's first amendment." Again, freedom of combustion is not included in the first amendment. "If such an amendment as making illegal flag burning were to occur, it would be the first time in American history that a citizen could purchase an item he could never legally destroy." He could still legally destroy it; it would just have to be on his own property, though. "Say a citizen has a sun-faded American flag bumper sticker, or a senator gets his American flag cake cut for his guests - what an amendment against desecrating an American flag would bring is legislation against people who desecrate the flag in 'anti-American' fashions. So, the law is punishing thoughts, not acts, and this makes it a much more dreadful piece of legislation." Eating an American flag cake is not burning an American flag. Furthermore, the act of burning a flag is indeed an act, not just a thought. "The flag stands for the freedom each American has, including the right to burn that very symbol." However, if they burn the symbol of their freedom, this could be associated with a loss of that freedom. "What a law prohibiting its desecration would do is mandate respect for a flag." It wouldn't mandate respect; it would prohibit combustion. "I await my opponent's defense of his only argument." I need another argument to add to this debate. CONTENTION 2: Burning things is dangerous. http://www.baptistboard.com... Secondhand smoke can be harmful to innocent bystanders. http://lisnews.org... Sparks flying from a burning flag can seriously injure someone. http://volokh.com... The fire started to burn the flag can spread to envelop surrounding areas. http://www.nj.com... Fire spreads. http://en.wikipedia.org... "An array of other equipment to combat the spread of fires." So, technically, whenever someone burns a flag on public property, he is putting the entire public property, along with everyone on that public property, at risk of dying in a giant, fiery inferno. "We should be a strong enough country to accept criticism; especially from our own citizens." I don't think that our public property can take being burned down to the ground very well. Thus, because flag burning can easily become dangerous for the people and the country, it should be illegal on public property, unless sanctioned by the U.S. gov't, because they could execute safety measures more sanely than radical flag burners who would possibly be glad to learn that they burned down property of the government they oppose. And so, if you're going to burn up your flag, be sure to do it on your own property, so that you put your own property at risk, and not that of everybody else. Thank you for reading.