Flag burning

"this essentially shows several risks the flames emitted from the flags can do." Just because there are risks for an activity does not mean it should be outlawed. There is risk that your parachute may not open or that you will get into a car accident but driving and parachuting are not illegal. "Examples of consequences are accidental fire starts as flags are highly flammable as well as children being exposed to the smoke." Leaving a curling iron on accidentally or lightning striking can cause fires but no one is sent to jail for accidentally leaving an appliance on or for natural processes. "There are other ways to protest other than burning a flag." There are other ways to make macaroni other than boiling water. Flag burning is used when motions run high. When the government does something atrocious like commit a genocide, burning a flag hardly seems too radical. "Now imagine if every american or obama hater decided to burn a flag. Imagine what that would do to the enviorment(sic) as well as the children of the enviorment.(sic)" Lighting any fire can be harmful to the environment. Should we outlaw camp fires now? No. You are trying to control every aspect of everyone's lives. "The govt has an obligation to protect everone(sic), and in some instances protect them even if they don't want to be protected." So people should not be able to harm themselves by smoking or consuming large amounts of alcohol? Every individual has the right to autonomy. They have the right to ingest or do anything to themselves so long as they do not harm anyone else. What right does the government have to take away my right to smoke? "Burning flags is often one of the most despised things to see by us patriots, and the majority of americans tend to, well, i don't know, like america." Just because one protests the governments actions does not mean that they dislike america. It just means that they care enough about their country to detest harmful actions. Just because a parent detests an action by their child or punishes them does not mean that they dislike the child. It just means that they care enough to not let harmful actions go by. "So imagine if you see protesters burning flags everywhere, this would obviously enrage protesters. They would perhaps resort to violnt(sic) acts to retaliate at their flag, symbol of their nations pride getting demolished." Just because something makes someone mad does not mean that that action should be criminalized. Most forms of protest will makes some people mad. Do you have a problem with all religions as religion certainly stirs up strong emotions in people and has in many cases led to extreme violence. And you identified yourself as a patriot. Nationalism has certainly led to many wars. People want to defend their country. I don't necessarily have a problem with that I am just showing that most things will make some people mad and things most precious to most people like religion or patriotism definitely can lead to violence. "Even if its not violence, the people burning flags would be looked down upon and subjected to social stigmatization as many people would form opinions about these people as traitors which links to discrimination." Just because someone is looked down upon does not mean their cause is not just. Most protesters are looked down upon by at least someone. The goal of protesting is not to become popular. And if flag burning should be illegal just because it CAN lead to discrimination then from that line of reasoning why don't we just genetically manipulate everyone to become the same sexual orientation, same gender, and same race. And why not force everyone to recognize the same religion and same nationality. This all makes sense according to your line of reasoning as people are discriminated against based on their sexual orientation, gender, race, religion and nationality. We cannot eliminate individuality to suppress a minority opinion.