What makes you think it's not constructive?!
I think it's worth discussing why a large number (possibly even a majority!) of people want to murder executives. Telling those people to shut up removes yet another way for them to express their opinions. I think taking notice of the room is very constructive. I think having a point to discuss (even if it's violence) is constructive. Talk is cheap, after all; and talk is way cheaper than murder.
Moreover, I've heard many many many people insist that violence is never the answer. Alas, they forget that violence is how most countries were founded; ignore that many laws and regulations are written in blood; and rarely consider the situations where all other solutions have been explored and exhausted. Further, if business is so worried about costs, and violence can be cheaper than exploring all alternative options, then there's definitely a business mindset to that. And business is what you want to discuss anyway, right?
If you really think violence is never the answer then you should do everything in your power to prevent it. So instead of insulting someone for expressing an opinion, perhaps you should talk to them instead. You might discover a new/unique point of view, or you might even be able to change their mind.
Because it's completely and totally irrelevant to the topic at hand, the only connection is the general strata of the position that the people held—not even the same title, just the same class of title!
I'm generally not okay with people calling for murdering people based solely on their job title. Subtly hinting that it might be okay to kill those people is not much better.
> So instead of insulting someone for expressing an opinion, perhaps you should talk to them instead.
They didn't express an opinion, they casually referenced a mostly unrelated sensational story while intentionally avoiding expressing an opinion.
Fun fact: topics can change while discussion continues.
> I'm generally not okay with people calling for murdering people based solely on their job title. Subtly hinting that it might be okay to kill those people is not much better.
To be clear, neither am I. But I do think it's important to discuss with people who think it is okay because, as I said earlier, telling them to shut up will result in worse situations.
> They didn't express an opinion
Perhaps the mere fact that you don't recognize their comment as an opinion is partly why people feel unheard.
That doesn't make it reasonable to insert a casual call for murder into every loosely related conversation [0].
It's free internet points, I guess, but it's also not constructive and frankly more than a little bit creepy.