John Fund of National Review Online urges policymakers not to go overboard in attempts to combat hateful speech.

As horrifying as the killings by the El Paso and Dayton shooters are, let’s not make free speech another casualty of these murders.

In the wake of the El Paso shootings, many commentators have attacked the Drudge Report for publishing the killer’s alleged 2,300-word manifesto entitled “The Inconvenient Truth.” The document states the killer drew inspiration from white racial-supremacy theories found in a manifesto written by the murderer of 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last March. …

… In addition to understanding the twisted motivations of mass killers, a reason that it’s important to allow ordinary citizens to access their writings is that the media can’t always be counted to provide a full interpretation or context of their motivations.

How many Americans know that the El Paso killer also made it clear that he hates automation and corporations, and blames them for a stagnant economy even while he blames Hispanics for environmental degradation? His solution harkens back to the most fanatical views of zero-population-growth advocates: “If we can get rid of enough people,” he wrote, “then our way of life can become more sustainable.” Ambitious left-wing projects such as universal health care and Universal Basic Income “would become far more likely to succeed if tens of millions of dependents are removed.”

We’ve already learned that the shooter who killed nine people outside a Dayton, Ohio bar, early this morning described himself as a “pro-Satan “leftist,” and that he was a registered Democrat who supported Elizabeth Warren and hated President Trump and law enforcement. Who knows what else we may learn about the complexity of his background and thinking?