Someone tried to take away my freedom of speech?

On a personal level I would say that she saleswoman over-reacted, but no, that does not constitute taking away your freedom of speech. You could have kept talking if you wanted to. If she wanted to go as far as to kick you out of the store for your words, then she does technically have the authority to do so since the store is private property, the owner has the authority to refuse service to you or kick you out for any reason, and the saleswoman is acting as a representative of the owner. I doubt he'd be too happy with her after the fact, though. The first amendment protects you from being persecuted by the government for your words. You don't have the right to go onto private property and say whatever you want any more than she has the right to come into your home and say whatever she wants.

Personally, I would have probably told the saleswoman to piss off and gone from there. But no, your right to free speech wasn't violated.

The store clerk is not the government. They can request that you not speak about the competition till they're blue in the face. The extent that they can enforce their rule is to kick you out of the store.

Personally, if I were in that situation, I would have turned to the other customer and commented something like, "So, they wont talk about their competition to you... Aren't you glad I'm here to let you know" (You are not part of that "we" -- you don't work for Radio Shack).

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

At what point were you criminally punished by a law passed by Congress for what you said???

The right to free speech is not "freedom of speech", it means that laws cannot be passed by the Government limiting what you say. Private individuals can exercise their own rights to limit what you say though.

Your 1st Amendment rights were not violated (not even close) and you absolutely could have been thrown out of the store (a private company) for interfering with their business. When on private property you have no "freedom of speech". The owner of the property sets the terms and conditions of you being there, and when in a store you have no right to interfere with their business.

Bottom line, you were in the wrong here.

The government cannot restrict free speech. However, private companies don't have to provide a venue for you to express your opinions. That is, a store doesn't have to allow you to tell its potential customers about other stores. Internet forums don't have to allow you to express disruptive or even just unpopular opinions, etc. A newspaper is not obliged to publish your letter to the editor.

You are free to buy and operate your own store, or provide your own forum, or start up your own newspaper, and express your opinions. The government can't shut you down for that, unless you're compromising national security.

You are. The 1st amendment, or your Freedom of Speech, protects you from having the GOVERNMENT try to restrict your rights. There is no provision about a store clerk telling you not to say something.

You are wrong.

Freedom of speech deals with GOVERNMENT controls on speech. It protects you from being arrested for what you say.

You were on private property. You have no right to be in private property if you are behaving inappropriately - and trying to convince another customer to buy a competitor's product is very inappropriate. The employee had the right to tell you to shut up. She had the right to tell you to get out. She had the right to ban you from the store.

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It's there store and private property. You're talking up a competitor of the product they sell and hurting their business. Of COURSE they can tell you not to do that. Do you think freedom of speech would allow you to walk into someone's store and start talking about how bad their product is?

You have no business to interrupt or interject into ongoing transactions between Radio Shack and random customers. You offered your two cents, you were rightfully told to butt out, and by own will acted upon what he clerk told you to do.

The first amendment to the US Constitution prohibits ONLY THE GOVERNMENT from restricting speech.

Anyone else, anywhere, any time can tell you not to say something.

If they have some authority over you, they can enforce it.

And yet, YOU are too lazy and stupid to READ THE DAMN THING.