50 murdered by Islamic terrorist.

It may be a cost of the free society in which we live, apogee. If we move toward being a police state by restricting free exercise of religion, or free association, or free speech, the right to be free of unreasonable searches and siezures, or the right to keep and bear arms, in an effort to stop this sort of terrorism, haven't the terrorists already succeeded in destroying our society?

We need to have some of the fortitude shown by the Brits in the midst of the terrorist attacks by the IRA. They refused to let the threat of terrorism cause them to change their essential way of life. Whatever we do to root out this evil should not be at the expense of the Bill of Rights. Sad to say, I expect calls to erode those freedoms from both the right and the left. These are not easy times for our country and society. I hope we are up to the task.

And Mick, I have no doubt that the presence of firearms affects the number of firearm homicides, but the causation isn't crystal clear. The table above shows an imperfect correlation. In any case, the history of the founding of the United States gave the framers a strong distrust of allowing the government to disarm its citizens. I don't think that distrust has disappeared sufficiently to change the Second Amendment.

The 2nd Amendment has long outlived its usefulness and should be repealed or modified substantially. The days when citizens could keep government from overreaching by simply arming themselves has long passed.

Curt

"Odd how many Americans invoke the 2nd Amendment to justify gun ownership, rather than explore whether or not it's a good idea." -Neil deGrasse Tyson

Comey also revealed new details about Mateen’s conversations with a 911 dispatcher early Sunday morning as the American-born perpetrator was carrying out the bloodiest gun massacre in U.S. history, killing 49 people and wounding more than 50 others, at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub.

During the course of three phone conversations with the dispatcher, Comey said, Mateen pledged allegiance by name to the head of the Islamic State group, a reference to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Mateen also claimed solidarity during those calls to the Boston Marathon bombers and an American suicide bomber who blew himself up in Syria in 2014, the FBI director said.

But Comey also noted that some of Mateen’s comments, both Sunday morning and in the earlier statements that had triggered the FBI’s previous investigations, were “contradictory” and raised questions about precisely what terrorist groups he supported. For example, Comey noted, Mateen had been reported by his co-workers in 2013 to have claimed he was a member of Hezbollah — a Shia terrorist group that, Comey said, was a bitter enemy of the Islamic State.

I'm still in favor of the right of non-felon American adults to own guns for self-defense, both as a matter of constitutional law and policy, but restrictions on the types of guns seem reasonable to me.

Conservatives:"Don't say it has anything to do with guns!" Liberals:"Don't say it has anything to do with Islam!" -Bill Maher

I always find it ironic and puzzling when people question the need of a particular weapon for self defense purposes, when the weapon in question was just used to slaughter innocent people whom might have had a need for one in a self defense scenario.

Should we all walk around with AR-15

I don't know if anyone would have been saved by making these kinds of weapons illegal, but they really aren't necessary and they can certainly do a lot of damage. So really, why not make them illegal?

Individual freedom might be overrated.

Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of the Pink Pistols, an international GLBT self-defense organization, warns people not to jump immediately to the assailant’s guns as the object of blame, but to concentrate instead on Mateen’s violent acts. “The Pink Pistols gives condolences to all family and friends of those killed and injured at Pulse,” began Patton. “This is exactly the kind of heinous act that justifies our existence. At such a time of tragedy, let us not reach for the low-hanging fruit of blaming the killer’s guns. Let us stay focused on the fact that someone hated gay people so much they were ready to kill or injure so many. A human being did this. The human being’s tools are unimportant when compared to the bleakness of that person’s soul. I say again, GUNS did not do this. A human being did this, a dead human being. Our job now is not to demonize the man’s tools, but to condemn his acts and work to prevent such acts in the future.”