Terror at Orlando Nightclub, 20 Feared Dead.

You don't have to read anything about "Islamists" to understand that the westbank occupation is offensive to Palestinians, since being under the hegemony of Jews is very humiliating. Palestinians weren't humiliated pre-1967, under the hegemony of Jordan. In my opinion, many another nation victorious in a war would have already annexed the westbank, and made the Palestinians Israeli citizens. Oh, the horror (Marlon Bando's famous line in Apocalypse Now about the horrors of war, but meant differently I think?)

Mr Bass said he expected now his club could have been targeted. James Copenhaver, a former Orlando law enforcement official, told the Post there was a possible connection. “My training and experience suggest the shooter was scoping out L.G.B.T. clubs by friending club owners, club staff and even customers of the L.G.B.T. clubs in the Orlando area on social media,” he said. “This suggests that he was doing his homework if you will, gathering intel to determine which club would have the most victims for maximum body count, during his terrorist attack.” -

One mass killing is too many, but your argument would predict dozens every year.

there were 372 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2015, killing 475 and wounding 1,870.

Australia Hasn’t Had A Mass Shooting Since 1996

The story of Australia, which had 13 mass shootings in the 18-year period from 1979 to 1996 but none in the succeeding 19 years, is worth examining.

"Absurdly" easy? That's a matter of opinion.

Have you ever tried to purchase a gun? It's not "easy."

5 Things That Are Harder to Get Than an Assault Rifle
In Florida, it's easier to obtain a gun than an abortion

Under Florida law, Omar Mateen did not need a permit to purchase or carry the rifle he used in Sunday's Orlando nightclub shooting,
nor a license to own it.


Omar Mateen bought the assault rifle he used to kill 49 people at Pulse nightclub eight days before Sunday's shooting. The owner of the store that sold him the gun, St. Lucie Shooting Center, said on Tuesday that Mateen passed a background check. (In Florida, a background check is essentially just a query of several databases to determine whether the buyer has any felony convictions, active warrants or domestic-violence injunctions.)

But that was it! There was no waiting period. Under Florida law, he did not need a permit to purchase or carry the rifle, nor a license to own it.

Here are five things that are harder to get in the state of Florida than an assault rifle.

1. An abortion
There is no waiting period in Florida to buy an assault rifle like the one Mateen used to kill 49 people Sunday, but a woman seeking to abort a pregnancy must undergo an ultrasound and receive in-person counseling — then wait 24 hours — before the service can be performed. (Also, fun fact: in Florida, it is illegal for your doctor to ask if you if you own a gun.)

2. A driver's license
Under Florida law, you do not need a permit to purchase or carry an assault rifle, nor a license to own one. But Florida, like all U.S. states, does require anyone who operates a motor vehicle to have a driver's license. To get one, you'll have to provide a birth certificate or passport, proof of a Social Security number and two proofs of address. You have to take a four-hour Traffic Law and Substance Abuse Education class, pass a written test and a driving test and log 50 hours behind the wheel (at least 10 of which must be at night).

3. Solar panels
If you absolutely need a SIG Sauer MCX assault rifle right now but don't have the $2,058 to buy one, no sweat — many Florida gun stores offer layaway plans that will let you to pay the gun off in installments. If you want to buy solar panels in Florida, though, you will have no such luck. To get panels, you have to pay the prohibitive cost upfront: those popular leasing programs available in other states are verboten in Florida. (As Tim Dickinson noted in Rolling Stone earlier this year, fewer than 9,000 Sunshine State homes have panels installed because of the restrictive state laws that favor the utility companies.)

4. Voter-registration cards
If you want to buy an assault rifle in Florida, you don't need permission from anyone. But if you want to host a voter-registration drive, you'll need permission from the state. Under the law, third-party voter registration groups like the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, unions and anyone who collects voter registrations must turn the them in within 48 hours or face steep fines.

5. An exotic animal
To own a Class I exotic animal, such as a Komodo Dragon, in Florida, you need to be able to demonstrate that you have at least one year and no fewer than 1,000 hours of experience "in the care, feeding, handling and husbandry of the species" for which you are trying to obtain a permit. You'll need proof of that experience too in the form of a written description, complete with dates and locations, of that experience. And that's not all: You'll also need two personal references as well as previous permits and employment records. Again, to get an assault rifle, you just need an ID and a (largely) clear criminal record.

"Absurdly" easy? That's a matter of opinion.

Have you ever tried to purchase a gun? It's not "easy."

*We’re defining a mass shooting as four or more people shot (killed or injured) in the same incident, including the shooters. According to the similar definition used by the website Mass Shooting Tracker, there were 372 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2015. It’s estimated that there are more guns than people in America today, over 300 million. And the U.S. has the highest gun-homicide rate in the developed world: More than 12,000 people died last year in this country after having been shot.

I don't think you'd like to hear my theory on why so few got meaningful coverage.