@McGentrix,
My interest there was to point out that the Constitution gives authority to the Congress and the states to regulate the militia, and the courts have consistently interpreted this to mean a right of firearms control legislation, as well as control of association of the unorganized militia (see the Dick Act, the Militia Act of 1903).
Heller is irrelevant on those issues. I know that the gun lobby (I have no reason to label you a gun nut) love that case, but it is not at all far-reaching, nor the definitive statement on gun regulation that many people seem to think it is.
My remarks did not address either the morality or the
realpolitik of the contemporary gun culture and debate. I don't happen to personally believe that there is such a thing as evil. We all make subjective judgments of good and bad, and we both agree that what happened was bad. That clown fired hundreds and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in a brief period of time, and many of those killed and wounded would not have had time to find cover. But there is a substantive distinction which can be raised. Whitman, the Texas Tower shooter in 1966 killed fifteen people, and wounded more than 30 others. But that was over a period of an hour and half--police response was pathetic. One can only imagine what kind of slaughter Whitman could have carried out with weapons such as the Vegas shooter used, in a period of an hour and a half.
Therefore, I don't buy at all the implication in saying that changing gun laws will not "stop evil." After all, what could that loon in Vegas have accomplished in the way of slaughter with a heavy machine gun, with RPGs, with a grenade launcher? There is good reason to suggest that much stricter gun laws, and real enforcement on private and gun show sales could have an important impact. Could it happen overnight? of course not. But one does not refuse to attempt to fix a situation just because it cannot be accomplished instantly.