A shooting by Islamic radicals in the French capital of Paris on Wednesday shocked McIntosh students.

According to the BBC, two brothers entered the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 employees of the newspaper before escaping in a stolen vehicle. Friday morning, police located the brothers at a warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele, a town north of Paris. About the same time, a gunman killed a policewoman in Montrouge, a southern suburb of Paris, before taking hostages at a kosher grocery near the Charlie Hebdo offices.

According to the AFP, the hostage taker at the grocery knew at least one of the Charlie Hebdo attackers and threatened to kill hostages if the brothers were attacked by police. Friday afternoon, police stormed the warehouse in which the Charlie Hebdo attackers were hiding. A hostage was rescued, and both brothers were killed. According to the Irish Times, both brothers were on the U.S. no-fly list, and one had traveled to Yemen to train with Al-Qaeda. Later, the police stormed the grocery store to free the hostages. Four hostages and the man who had earlier shot the police officer died.

When asked about the attacks, senior Cory Radest said, “Je suis Charlie.” The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie is the top trending hashtag on Twitter as users all over the world express their support for Charlie Hebdo and the freedom of speech.

Sophomore Brandon Ben-Hanania believes that the most effective way to eliminate terrorism is to remove potential problems from a country. He said, “Terrorism should be eliminated by exporting all people who are deemed a threat and by using strong force.”

Junior Angel Angelov condemned the attacks. He said, “I feel that it is an attack on the freedom of speech in France; people should not lose their lives for exercising their constitutional rights.”

After these recent acts of violence against a Parisian newspaper, people around the world have been reminded of the constant threat to their rights posed by extremist throughout the world.

Math teacher Greg Mason said, “My biggest take is that the world somehow lost its humor. Steven Colbert and those other comedians that poke fun at politics aren’t there to cause harm. We need to learn to laugh at ourselves.” If everyone can bend others through violence, politics and opinions would become next to non-existent. The right to free speech allows a nation to improve policies and living conditions. If  we lacked the right to express opinions openly, progress would be next to impossible.

Opinion writers and political commentators may now think twice before they say something that may offend a tiny fraction a population. The small group that attacked the newspaper and took hostages in a warehouse should not be allowed to stop people from showing opposition towards ideas, groups and governments with which they do not agree.

Social studies teacher Laurette Edenfield said, “The downside of the attack in my point of view is that it will make people think twice before publishing controversial information. [The attackers] were not everyday people,  [they were] lone wolves. The attack hits globally. Whenever we get to the point that we have to reel ourselves in to avoid harm, that’s nonsensical to me. These [attacks] make newspapers, television channels, magazines, think ‘is some lunatic going to walk in the door and kill me for making fun?’ [The fact that] people take it personally [shows that] they are off-kilter to start with.”