Choose a weapon that is reliable and comfortable to shoot. Glock, SW, Sig, Ruger, and such. One that generally I stay away from is Hi-Point. Not a very reliable weapon, especially in a fire fight. I am a Glock person, but I also own Ruger, SW and Sig. There are other good brands but Hi-Point is not one of them (IMHO). AR's are easy to build and clean and the 223 ammo is still very affordable.

A good 1911 is always nice to have. For most people I would suggest staying with a couple of calibers like 9m, 45, or even 40. For a smaill rifle since most people can't get 22LR, well switch over to .17HMR. It shoots faster (1950fps), it shoots flatter and you can still find the ammo. I love my .17HMR with a bull barrel.

As far as AR rifles, it really depends on what you like to shoot, 300AC, 223, 7.62x39, 308 or 300wm and then of course your budget. AK's are fairly cheap and very customizable as are AR15's, and AR10's. If you step up to an AR chambered in the 300wm you will step up in price to 5 or 6k, but they are nice shooting rifles. AR15's are like the barbie doll's of rifles with a lot of changeable parts to doll it up (just don't over do it). Whatever you do, look around at your law enforcement persons as to what they shoot. Always staying with a caliber that law enforcement shoot is not a bad idea. Once you settle on your choice, stock up on about 3 to 4k rounds of each.

Practice, practice and practice. After practice,stop by the store and pick up what you just shot and rotate your inventory. Buying ammo a box or two at a time is perfect for a lot of people. Just don't HOARD your ammo.

Here in Texas, if an establishment recieves 51% of their sales from alcohol then you cannot bring your guns into it. Yes it is a felony.

Remember all. Islam is a religion of peace and makes me think of the movie Mars Attacks. They said they come in peace as they are wiping out the US cabinet!!!

If we want to do away with mass murder, we have to take the proper steps:
1) Stop disarming our citizens. The best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
2) Bring back and actively pursue the death penalty in appropriate cases. If you are convicted of murder, you die. End of story. No endless appeals. No rotting in prison. No such thing as a "life" sentence. Prisons are for rehabilitating the person so they can rejoin society as a productive member. If their crimes are such that rehabilitation is deemed impossible, what good is it to anyone to wall them away?
3) Actively pursue policies based on true equality and rights. Murder is an extreme response to some other problem or motive. We need to address these other motives - regardless of their origin. We need to recognize that while the First Amendment protects freedom of religion, it only does so to the point that that religion acknowledges the superiority of law of the Constitution of the United States. Any religion that actively seeks to supplant the Constitution with something else is not compatible and needs to be designated as such.
4) Tighten our immigration policies. We need to restrict entry into this nation to people who actually respect the Constitution of the United States. Whether guest or potential immigrant, visitors get a one-strike policy.

excellent post...maybe the gay community will learn as the jewish German community did in WWII not to trust their govt and arm and defend themselves...

Correct. The perpetrator legally acquired the weapon (not an AR BTW) and passed a background check to do so.

I think what was even more disgraceful is that the assassin was working for the Federal government and had passed their background check too despite openly posting on his Facebook account his plans! The FBI even said they had this fellow on a watchlist, but chose to ignore the warnings given by fellow employees about hid radical behavior and comments because he was Muslim.

Ku Klux Klan - Democrats.

Funny that the NRA themselves don't seem to know this. From NRA-org:

"Dismayed by the lack of marksmanship shown by their troops, Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate formed the National Rifle Association in 1871. The primary goal of the association would be to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis," according to a magazine editorial written by Church.

After being granted a charter by the state of New York on November 17, 1871, the NRA was founded. Civil War Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who was also the former governor of Rhode Island and a U.S. senator, became the fledgling NRA's first president.

An important facet of the NRA's creation was the development of a practice ground. In 1872, with financial help from New York State, a site on Long Island, the Creed Farm, was purchased for the purpose of building a rifle range. Named Creedmoor, the range opened a year later, and it was there that the first annual matches were held.

Political opposition to the promotion of marksmanship in New York forced the NRA to find a new home for its range. In 1892, Creedmoor was deeded back to the state and NRA's matches moved to Sea Girt, New Jersey.

The NRA's interest in promoting the shooting sports among America's youth began in 1903 when NRA Secretary Albert S. Jones urged the establishment of rifle clubs at all major colleges, universities and military academies. By 1906, NRA's youth program was in full swing with more than 200 boys competing in matches at Sea Girt that summer. Today, youth programs are still a cornerstone of the NRA, with more than one million youth participating in NRA shooting sports events and affiliated programs with groups such as 4-H, the Boy Scouts of America, the American Legion, Royal Rangers, National High School Rodeo Association and others."

The NRA did not organize to protect blacks against the KKK. I see this bandied about a lot and it's just not true. Many freed blacks did take up arms as defense against the KKK, but that was not ever part of the NRA's original purpose.

I bet the Pink Pistols just picked up thousands of new members.

At least you have the benefit of living in a State who's Constitution declares automatic secession if the individual right to bear arms is taken away.

While Florida is normally a pro-gun state, they do prohibit firearms in establishments where liquor is served, such as the nightclub where the massacre happened. While I understand the argument that guns and liquor don't mix, things like this give me pause...

of course it was a terrorist attack and i also believe it was probably a put up job to further the potential of gun control. sure being tied to isis was also a benefit to the promoters of gun control. it seems the only people who don't believe it was terrorist live in d.c. how many more thousands of guns will be sold in the next few weeks, thanks to 0. also this may cause gay people to now go to gay bars armed.
we are living in very despicable times i am very sorry to say. if your 25 or have children the world they are growing up in is not good.

I lived in FL in 2002-2003 and had a concealed carry permit. It was against the law to carry my weapon into a place serving alcohol at that time according to the documents that accompanied the permit.
(I made edits to my previous comment above possibly after your reply.)

I think the idea of guns that have lethal potential is getting obsolete. There HAS to be some device that can immobilize temporarily an attacker without permanently killing or maiming him (resulting in a lawsuit. The problem is that guns are typically needed in very stressful situations where its easy to make a mistake. Not always, of course. Sometimes you just want the other person DEAD and quickly, and so long as you aim correctly, guns do the job.

I would just like to see police have some sort of immobilizing tool that would help protect peoples' rights without all these accidental police shootings

I have carried a concealed pistol into the "gun free zone" of the credit union I "bank" at.
I'm a naughty old dino.

For the fiscally constrained, Hi-Point makes a carbine in 9 mm, 40 cal or 45 ACP that shoots well and is low price. Their handguns are abominably ugly, but reliable as a tank, and very affordable. One of each in matching caliber should equip your armory nicely without breaking the bank.

It was just an AR-15. Semiauto rifle. No big deal, but it is black and scary versus wooden and warm. Wood stock semi-auto can do the same thing.

Lewis and Clark's Girandoni air rifle could arguably support a similar massacre, and was one reason the native americans allowed them free passage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girando...

The AR style rifle was legally acquired, and is a weapon anyone who passes the check can buy. Despite the wails about "automatic weapons" and "machine guns" it was a semiautomatic. The death toll wasn't because of the volume of fire, but because the patrons were unarmed, had no safe area to retreat to, and no easy escape route during the several hours the perpetrator was picking people off.

Its a dark nightclub after all, where people are loose and having a good time- Not prepared for some idiot coming in to shoot up the place.

Very loud music and flashing lights all over the place too. Very hard to defend oneself with a lot of others packed into the room also wildly moving around.

Maybe we should all wear very accurate plastic gun replicas so a perp really doesnt know who is armed and who isnt. The deterrent would be beetter than bullets flying all around. If I had a gun there, the chances I could hit the perp instead of random other people isnt high. Its not like I am trained and practice all the time.

A lot of drunks with firearms blazing away would certainly be mayhem. I think anyone with this kind of club should require their bartenders get training and keep firearms behind the counter. They would be a lot less obvious than uniformed security, and with armor panels behind the bar front could gather patrons in a bulletproof area. Unfortunately, if you don't prepare for this kind of event, the consequences can be horrific.

Because they were unarmed, and even separately did not fight back.

I cannot imaging shooting even 20 people in a confined space that were coming after me.

The meek will inherit nothing that some determined friend doesn't provide. The Democrats want to be the "friends" of the weak by making everyone but criminals weak.... then come the actions of unchecked power.

Its a little unlikely one would have carried a gun into a nightclub and had it ready while dancing and having a good time, tho.

But the idea that the perp would never know if someone had a gun ready for defense is a good deterrent.

Its not going to help if we allow the syrian muslim refugees into the country when we dont have to, and its just a liberal humanitarian thing. Too risky I think. How can you possibly vet all those people when we cant even figure out if our own citizens are going to snap and turn allegiance to some muslim craziness.

Police are not as well "trained" as you may think. Its extremely rare that any police employee wins a prize for accurate shooting competing against shooting enthusiasts. I guess that rent-a-cop will claim he was out gunned, like the federal goons always do when they prove their complete incompetence in reality, e.g., Miami in 1986.

Having once been one myself, I'm wondering if that armed security guard really wanted to achieve target acquisition.

Clinging to Obama with his "come on in, syrian refugees" attitude is NOTHING to cling to for sure.

Exactly.

Did anyone remember that the National Rifle Association began as the Black Rifle Association? The word National in the name tells the tale. Blacks in this country organized it to protect themselves against the Ku Klux Klan.

"The law prevents carrying a gun for self defense in a place that serves alcohol regardless of whether you are drinking alcohol."
When I was there, you could carry in a place that serves alcohol, but you could not get drunk. I think you could not physically sit at the bar (I don't understand that one.) even if not drunk. But you could sit at a table at a place that has a bar. It may have changed since I lived there.