Las Vegas Massacre: More Than 50 Dead Near Mandalay Bay Casino
More than 400 injured.
A gunman opened fire on an outdoor concert near the Mandalay Bay casino on the Las Vegas Strip and killed at least 50 people. More than 400 people have sustained injuries.
The Shooting
Authorities have identified 64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, NV, as the shooter. Reports say that Paddock “unleashed a withering hail of bullets from an automatic weapon from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.” From Fox News:
Authorities first received calls about an active shooting at about 10:08 p.m. Country music star Jason Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when the gunfire erupted.
Aldean was performing his last song of the night. Initially, those in attendance said they thought the sound was firecrackers. But as the shots continued, Aldean stopped singing and some concertgoers could be heard yelling to each other to get down.
Footage shows the moment the sound of gunfire stops a Las Vegas concert. There are reports of multiple injuries pic.twitter.com/y5x0bA1F8N
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 2, 2017
Authorities have located his roommate Marilou Danley, 62, who they identified as a person of interest. Detectives “do not believe she is involved with the shooting,”
Clark County Sheriff Jospeh Lombardo explained that the authorities knew about Paddock due to his criminal past. He described him as a lone wolf and does not have any known connections to terrorists. Basically, no one knows Paddock’s motivation as of now.
The authorities also found several weapons in Paddock’s room, which he had been in since September 28, with his dead body. It looks like Paddock killed himself before the police could catch him.
Witness Accounts
From Fox News:
Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said the music stopped temporarily and started up again before another round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.
“It was the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Yazzie told the Associated Press. “You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash- flash- flash- flash.”
As the 40,000 fans in the crowd began to flee, Yazzie took cover and said he saw flashes of light coming from the Mandalay Bay hotel tower high above.
The New York Post reported:
Matt and Robyn Webb from Orange County said they sheltered under their seats as bullets rained down from the direction of Mandalay Bay.
“It just kept coming,” Robyn Webb told the paper. “It was relentless.”
They later fled toward Reno Avenue, where they said they saw as many as 20 people bleeding in the street.
“That’s when we knew for sure it was real,” Matt Webb said.
—
Mike McGarry, a 53-year-old financial adviser from Philadelphia, said he was at the concert when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.
“It was crazy — I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I’m 53. I lived a good life,” said McGarry, whose shirt bore footprints, after people in the panicked crowd ran over him.
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Comments
Why anyone would do something like this, let alone a 64-year-old, is beyond comprehension. Where did he get an automatic rifle?
Crazy people are dangerous. I’ve known very even-tempered men who suffered a major cardiac event or stroke who became raging nutters thereafter.
Assuming an really “automatic rifle”, you get one by buying it, stealing it, or making it. The mechanical skills for converting a semi-automatic are pretty minimal. The bar isn’t in making one, it’s in breaking a very serious set of laws if you do.
If “The Mail” report is correct, this guy lived in a $300k+ home, so he was in funds. Reports are he had a criminal history. as well.
Reports also suggest the shooter was practiced at reloading and firing accurately from a height. OR maybe it was just “spray and pray”. Watch and see…
Thanks. Investigation will show if he used semi-automatics he personally modified. I have heard recordings of the firing; it was continuous firing, without pauses for each trigger pull.
Considering the remarkable inability of the press to distinguish one type of gun from another, it’s not at all clear that we’ll know anything factual any time soon.
I recall a news item (a documentary, actually) which carried on at great length about a Ruger handgun … while the camera zoomed in on the gun and the very clear HIGH STANDARD marking on its slide. It takes a pro to make a mistake like that.
The police can be surprisingly bad at firearms ID, also.
FYI
“Mandalay Bay Massacre – 58 Dead, 500+ Injured During Mass Shooting at Las Vegas Country Music Festival…”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/10/02/mandalay-bay-massacre-58-dead-500-injured-during-mass-shooting-at-las-vegas-country-music-festival/
So can the BATFE as I found out years ago with a chit-chat with their St. Louis office during their illegal “Forward Look” project.
The BATFE determines whether a firearm can be readily converted to full auto and if so, bans from sale. Depending on the design of the semi-auto receiver the full auto sear needed may fit. That would require the right receiver and a Fed full NFA background check… or … black market.
Years ago during the late ’80’s ramp up to bans, NBC or one of the major networks tried to convert a rifle from scratch and couldn’t. The Hollywood shoot out was important since the rifles had been converted… LA Times article said ATF very concerned… rumor was smuggled in from Mexico were they were converted.
All to say it isn’t as easy as it looks and the BATFE determinations are important.
Isn’t that the same BATFE that “determined” that a shoelace was an automatic weapon?
The same BATFE that “determined” that a man’s rifle which fired more than one shot per trigger pull due to a malfunction (as in, it kept firing even after the trigger was released) — a malfunction, I might add, that they were unable to duplicate with that very rifle — was nevertheless worthy of prosecution and a prison sentence for “illegal modification”?
The same BATFE that “determined” that a round designed to be fired from a rifle, but for which handguns are available, is “designed to be fired from a handgun”?
The same BATFE that “determined” that an arm brace designed to steady a handgun being fired one-handed was “designed to be fired from the shoulder”, and so the handgun in question was an illegal short-barrelled rifle, even after the arm-brace was removed? And then, days later, reversed that arm-brace “determination”, rendering the handgun a mere handgun again?
BATFE “determinations” may be important for criminal law, but that doesn’t mean they make any sense or are any less subject to the day-to-day whims of the bureaucrats in charge.
One can achieve a pretty high rate of fire with regular semi-automatic firearms if that person has had training and practice. There also devices one can attach to firearms that, while not technically making the gun fully automatic, can achieve similar rates of fire. One of the most well known being the Bump Fire Stock: http://www.slidefire.com/?avad=49183_ffa7a41d
I’m not going to take the media’s word as gospel that this guy indeed had fully automatic weapons unless and until we get a police report detailing exactly what kind of firearms he had and used. It’s difficult and expensive for people with clean records to obtain these weapons in the U.S., for someone with a criminal record, pretty much had to have been stolen/black market.
Yes, it’s too early to be sure of anything except that a lot of people died. Possibly by this evening or tomorrow credible reports will begin emerging.
There are a bunch of cellphone videos of the incident floating around… it was clearly a full-auto weapon he was firing
Kudos to you. Reports today are that the shooter used a bump stock to produce more rapid fire, not an fully automatic weapon.
Speculation is that the shooter used a “Gat Crank” due to what sounds like an uneven rate of rapid fire.
Example of a “Gat Crank”, which is incredibly easy to make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jif4Wo0LDX8
What can one say to senseless horror like this?
Rest in peace for those who were killed, may God help you find some peace for those who are injured or are friends and family of those dead or injured.
From a major study in workplace violence – the standard profile for this type of shooter is a middle aged white man who is a loner. Usually, he has been simmering over perceived slights and a general lack of success in life. Usually, no significant criminal convictions.
Interestingly enough, the person who uses a knife or his fists to attack is usually a 30 year old drug abuser, hothead who has a violent history.
Narrative incoming:
“We need to ban automatic weapons!”
“They’re already banned.”
“Then ban something else!”
The early morning news speculators are out in force on the network news shows. Clips are not magazines, full automatic firearms are NOT readily available to the public.
The shooter has already been identified by name. I have always thought that publishing the name and origins of the perp encourages future atrocities. Almost by definition, the people who commit these shootings are deranged, sometimes grossly, unhinged. Most, if not all, do not expect or desire to survive their attack. It may be done to “go out with a bang” and set new records for carnage. It has been reported that they have journals or diarys indicating some “hero worship” of the previous people who committed mass shootings. This type of copy cat commits his crime wanting to be memorialized in Newspapers, TV and Radio reports, so in reporting details fulfills and fuels future crimes. The public has rights to know things about these acts, that being said, there is no real good done by going into details: name, age, ethnicity, etc. These should be reported as generic values: male, young/middle/old age, general region of origin, so as not to fulfill the desire of the perp to go down in history as the largest, biggest, most, etc.
Suppression of information is generally poor practice, no matter who thinks it might be a good idea.
I bet it was a Bernie Bro. Shooter even looks like one.
“Shooter had no political affiliations” = Leftist.
The cynical side of me is thinking, “Bernie Bro with a gun, wanting to target Republicans like the guy who shot Steve Scalise.” It’s cynical because we just don’t have solid information on that yet.
What other event in Las Vegas is more likely to have an unusually-high concentration of political conservatives than a Harvest Festival where Jason Aldean is performing?
You want to harm a lot of LGBTQ persons and face no resistance? Attack a gay club posted against CCW.
You want to harm a lot of Western preteen girls and face no resistance? Attack an Ariana Grande concert.
You want to harm a lot of conservatives and face almost no resistance? Attack a country music concert in a gun-controlled city, from an elevated position across the street.
If this attack was as well-planned as it appears, then I have to believe that festival/concert was targeted for a reason.
I can hear liberals hearing up to take advantage if the shootings now.
How many days before this is blamed on Trump?
You mean milliseconds.
It’s going to be fun watching Leftists begging Trump to take away their guns.
Of course it was a white man. As most active shooters are. Have been since Charles Whitman.
This is only accurate, if one classifies a “mass shooting event” as being a lone gunman who engages a large group without any discernible reason related to other criminal goals and not acting in a spontaneous manner.
If one lumps in all the drive-by shootings related to gang activity, jilted lovers, immediate violent disagreements and other criminal goals, then the number of minority participants takes a staggering jump.
People who commit large public attacks usually do it for two reasons; notoriety or an ideological goal. In this case, there does not appear to be any ideological goal. But, that may change.
One thing about this is that it was probably planned. The shooter had at least one rifle, not something the average person carries to Vegas to gamble or even on vacation. He had a large supply of ammunition already loaded into magazines. Again, not something someone normally carries around with them. He was ensconced in a room which gave him a high vantage point and a clear line of sight to the music festival and which was relatively close to the venue. This was not a person spontaneously acting due to alcohol or drug consumption, though he may have been under either or both at the time.
We will learn more about this situation as time goes on.
Apparently credible reports are that he had more than ten rifles up there, or at least more than ten firearms, and he’d been there since Sept. 28.
If he was just plain crazy, wanting to make a splash with his last acts might “explain” it. If he was crazy but with some twisted motivation, the planned target being a country music festival might be significant.
But it’s too early to say.
There’s insufficient information to conclude that planning was involved. A guest who just happens to be at a hotel might be irritated by nearby noise. No planning needed for that. The rifle implies some planning, perhaps, but it doesn’t imply planning a massacre.
He may have been planning something big someplace else. Then the noise bugged him and he said “Why not now?”
There are a number of reasonable scenarios whereby a person, who lived 80 miles away, might transport numerous firearms, including one or more rifles, and a large amount of ammunition to Las Vegas and check into a room on the 32 floor of a hotel on a Thursday and stay in that room for the next three days. When that person then fires 100-150 rifle rounds into a crowded music festival in the fairground across the street, which his room just happens to overlook, then a good working assumption is that he may very well have planned the attack, rather than it being a spontaneous event.
As the investigation progresses, we will get a clearer idea of what happened and why the shooter did what he did.
I read that the shooter ask for a room facing the concert.
(Vegas news source)
He apparently had 10 guns and a bunch of ammo in the room…
That had to take several trips….(32rd floor!) I wonder how he got all that stuff up to the room with no one noticing?
I guess he did alot of gambling…maybe revenge on the casino?
Authorities have identified 64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, NV, as the shooter.
I wonder what the actual evidence for this is.
Dead guy plus rifle does not necessarily equal the guilty party.
Shooting atrocities of this type are not commonly committed by men of that age. That doesn’t mean he didn’t do it; it means we should ask for some rationale for pinning it on him.
If he had been firing semi-auto with some competence and a scope a lot more people would have died. He was spraying and praying so “only” 58+ died and 400 wounded.
The targeting of Judeo-Christian values by the left – and the crying boehners’long aquiescence of the left in that goal – has produced an epidemic of sociopathy and debauchery.
Belief in hell – or karma – isnt a bad thing. The absence of such a belief gives rise to the likes of this moron, and the
near election of the likemss of hillary clinton.
The vacuum of religiosity is being filled by angry islamists:
“Fat, black and muslim” –
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2017/09/28/detroit-mode-making-people-uncomfortable/