The shooting in Texas by two gunman in response to an Anti-Islamic art exhibition is reminiscent of January’s Charlie Hebdo tragedy.

In an essay submitting to obtain a scholarship, I wrote about whether or not the French government should limit free speech in the interest of protecting the public. While I objected to such an act in my piece, I also referred to the Hebdo incident by a phrase that goes along the lines of, “if you poke a hornet’s nest, don’t be surprised by the stings.”

This phrase should be understood as a whole because I am in no way justifying retaliation violence in any form. This does not mean that I cannot express my disgust towards prejudiced groups of people who insist on provoking a large population of people with a huge offense because of the actions of the few. Freedom of expression is a double-edged sword where one is perfectly able to lend their minds to free speech, but cannot be ignorant to the fact that there may be some sort of repercussion to the actions: it’s a two-way street.