Reply #17: If you take as a granted that there is a potential terrorist threat against the US,

[Occam Bandage]

in an immediate and real nature (which most Americans did of their own accord without needing the government to push them in that direction for at least the first year after 9/11) than anyone with half a brain could realize that the most cost-efficient way terrorists could strike in the United States would be through armed gunmen. It was certainly the duty of the government to plan for worst-case scenarios. I would be horrified if they did not, much as I was horrified that DHS apparently did not have any plan in place for a levee in New Orleans being overtopped.

Unfortunately, it is not the duty of the government to plan for the egregious and repeated violation of Constitutional rights. That requires something a little more pressing than belief in a potential threat.