For full disclosure, I am against any form of violent assembly. I am against "peaceful assembly" on private property without permission.
I dislike loud and obscene "peaceful assembly".
Having identified where I stand, I find it exceptionally hypocritical that Mr. Exum is so adamantly in favor of the Florida Bill that "muffles" the First Amendment right of peaceful assembly, those protesting the draft abortion decision, but says nothing about the "peaceful assembly" of pro-life protesters at abortion clinics hindering access. Or protests against mask use. Or the Westboro Baptist Church anti-homosexual or trans-gender protests. Or the Trump Stop The Steal protests. Or protests against Disney for criticizing the FL Don't Say Gay law.
Most of those protests were loud and obscene. For him, and for many of the Republican Chattanoogan.com readers of his column, I suspect that type of peaceful assembly is perfectly acceptable.
Yet the Republicans are against the Right To Peaceful Assembly when it does not meet their standards, and hypocritically defend the "right to peaceful assembly" that occurred on Jan. 6, and the Republican instigators. The Founding Fathers had no idea of the electronic amplification of sound, but were aware of and subject to the "heckling" of the times. I suspect that "heckling" was not in a polite tone either.
The First Amendment is silent (pun intended) on the volume of a peaceful protest, as well as the obscenities that may be hurled. But I will take that loud and obscene "peaceful assembly" of the First Amendment any day instead of the Second Amendment right to own military grade weapons and the shooting and deaths that occur because of their availability. For Republicans, the First Amendment needs to be amended to fit their ideas, but they do not dare tread on the sanctity of the Second Amendment.
Joe Warren