Common Sense Regulation of the Constitution

The Internet was used by religious extremists half a world away to recruit and radicalize American citizens. Driven by religious ideology, they used the Internet as a tool to promote violence and mass killings driven by their religious agenda - by Americans, against protected groups.

Once radicalized, they used the Internet to equip terrorists with information on how to build bombs from everyday items like pressure cookers, which were then used to kill and maim hundreds.

The common issues are religion and information, which are being used to recruit, radicalize, and equip terrorists and the mentally ill.

We understand that most Americans aren't violent extremists - but some of us are. We need to keep Americans safe.

We live in an age in which anyone could see things on the Internet which anger them, and could radicalize them. The Web is being used as a recruiting tool. Churches and mosques are being used to incite anger toward others.

Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are being misused, killing and maiming Americans. We support the first amendment, but there needs to be some common sense regulation.

Americans have a long tradition of religious freedom – but we don’t need 250,000 churches of different types and ideologies, which can serve as a breeding ground for home grown terrorism. We should enact legislation to limit the number of denominations and churches available, which can then be monitored for approved content. 

Our founders could never have imagined the power and reach of information and speech in the information age. They never could have foreseen these technological changes that enable the recruiting, radicalization, and equipping of terrorists.

In order to protect Americans, only the government should have access to this much information. We should - like other modern countries including Germany, China, Russia, Italy, France and England – keep dangerous information from getting into the wrong hands. 

We should enact legislation to register those publishing and posting information for public consumption. Registration shouldn’t be limited to big companies, creating an information loophole – it should be universal, including microblogs like Facebook and social media sites where radical groups often operate. If you publish, you should be registered, documented, and your content strictly monitored to ensure Americans only receive the information they need.

We should maintain a list of questionable individuals that we suspect are providing information and content that is disruptive and dangerous, and might be used for the wrong reasons. If you're on this list, your access to publish and consume information should be removed to prevent you from placing others in danger. We, the government, will maintain this list for your protection.

In this day and age, the world is too dangerous to allow unfettered access to religious ideology and information.