https://reason.com/blog/2017/10/03/this-is-the-time-to-defend-the-second-am

Yet libertarians who believe in their arguments should also advance their case that strong protections for gun owners are a good thing even as we pay condolences to the dead and think about ways to minimize similar events. It's not cold-blooded or Vulcan to point out that we remain in the midst of an unprecedented deceleration of violent crime and gun crime. Surely that has some connection to policies over the past quarter-century or so that have made it easier for a wide variety of people to legally own and carry guns.

"From 1993 to 2015, the rate of violent crime

declined from 79.8 to 18.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older," says the Bureau of Justice Statistics in its most recent comprehensive report (published last October, using data through 2015). Over the same period, rates for crimes using guns dropped from 7.3 per 1,000 people to 1.1 per 1,000 people. The homicide rate is down from 7.4 to 4.9. These are not simply good things, they are great things. They are the essential backdrop of all discussions about gun crime and mass shootings, even as we grieve the people killed nonsensically in Vegas.

By one count, seven of the 15 deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the 21st century alone, despite the fact that it's not even two decades old yet. It is not clear at all whether mass shootings are actually more common than they used to be, although there is evidence that they are more deadly. Last June, after the mass shooting at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, CNN published two charts showing mass shootings to date in 2016. Using an expansive definition that counted all incidents in which four or more people, including the original gunman, were wounded or killed, there had been 136 incidents as of June 21. Using a more restrictive definition that excluded domestic violence and gang incidents, there had been three shootings involving four or more casualties. Partly as a result of such wide parameters, the overall decline in gun violence has gone largely unacknowledged by many people, including Donald Trump, who delusionally campaigned as "the law-and-order candidate" who alone could reverse a non-existent increase in violent crime.

re: guns and gun control in our country..... the sheer # of weapons, types of weapons and configuration of the weapons that this guy was able to legally obtain/set-up in order to plan and execute 60 people and injure over 500 should ALONE tell any reasonable humn being that we have a gun problem in this country.  Period.  We gloss over details like the fac that the guy had a 60 round magazine for at least one of his primary weapons.  Why does ANY civilian need access to this kind of firepower?  I can tell you - to kill lots of people.  That's it.  That's what those kinds of things are for.  And forgive the #badword# out of me if you get butthurt that you can't go to the range with you AR and it's 60 round mag and act like a small-dicked douche getting a woody b/c it's your right to own such a weapon - go buy a Hummer or something.

BBG