  The question of whether electron-electron interactions can drive a metal to
insulator transition in graphene under realistic experimental conditions is
addressed. Using three representative methods to calculate the effective
long-range Coulomb interaction between $\pi$-electrons in graphene and solving
for the ground state using quantum Monte Carlo methods, we argue that without
strain, graphene remains metallic and changing the substrate from SiO$_2$ to
suspended samples hardly makes any difference. In contrast, applying a rather
large -- but experimentally realistic -- uniform and isotropic strain of about
$15\%$ seems to be a promising route to making graphene an antiferromagnetic
Mott insulator.
