Quick hits ...

... because a lot is going on.

First, let me add my prayers for healing and my heartfelt sympathy to those already offered to the many families and friends of those 49 people cut down in Orlando, as well those injured, along with any and all impacted by this horrible act of senseless violence.

The events in Orlando have opened up a series of emotional and impassioned subjects like a band-aid ripped off of a nearly-healed wound.

Gay Pride - this butcher focused his violence on a nightclub focusing on gay clientele. Those who were killed and injured, by and large, subscribe to that lifestyle. That is their right - and they did not give up those rights because they chose that lifestyle.  So all you "they deserve it" and God's judgment" types can stick it in your pious pie-holes. No one deserves to be murdered - and no one can make that judgment but God.

I have gay friends, because we respect each other. They do not try and "change" me and I don't try to "change" them. As a Christian, their lifestyles are between them and their maker and it's not for me to judge.  Beating gay people into submission with a Bible is not why the Bible was written.

This could have happened at a movie theater, a church, or a party at work. In fact, it has.

Gun control - I do not own a gun. I do know how to use them as I had to take gun courses in college and in the military. If the day comes that I do get a gun, it will be for one simple reason: Some part of my life needs to be defended with a deadly force, and no one but me can defend it.

It is important to note that I believe firmly in the concept of overwhelming advantage. If I am placed in a situation similar to what I have described above, I want to walk away successful - me breathing and the threat bleeding. I do not believe in applying just enough force to keep the threat at bay until help arrives. If I have to win that scenario, I want to win by as much as possible.

If that level of success can be achieved using BB guns, great. But if my odds or success go up with a weapon that delivers more firepower at a faster rate, I'd be all in for as much as I can afford.

That is why, my liberal friends, AR-15s are fine with me. As long as they are legal,

I know this post is not real funny. Hard to make this subject humorous. And I am sure no one in Orlando is getting a smile.