America is reeling from the worst mass shooting in its history after at least 50 people were killed and more than 200 wounded at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
Police say the shooter was 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, described as a local man, who opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas Village from a room across the street in the Mandalay Bay Hotel shortly after 10pm.
Officers say Paddock was shot and killed after they breached a room in the hotel, where he had stashed an ‘arsenal’ of weapons used during the massacre.
Investigators are now raiding the Mesquite home he shared with Marilou Danley, described as his ‘companion’, who was detained for questioning in the early hours of Monday morning.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said investigations are still ongoing and police have not yet determined a motive.
President Donald Trump paid his respects on Monday morning after the shooting, writing on Twitter: ‘My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!’
The bump-fire accessories have to be banned, along with high capacity magazines. It would be totally irresponsible not to. We’ve just had a painfully clear demonstration why.
No large gathering in any outdoor setting will now be safe from attack. Imagine a coordinated assault on an open football stadium executed by 6 similarly equipped individuals positioned in multiple concealed firing positions circling the site 500 yards distant. They could arch fire upward to come down on the crowd inside like a lethal hail storm. They’d be gone before you could figure out where they were. As somebody pointed out, you don’t need to see individual targets. The target is the whole damn stadium. Calculating the angle of fire from a known distance would be easy. You’d simply set up a gun rest at the proper height to maintain elevation, and use a compass to establish the precise direction of fire. You don’t need to see what you’re shooting at.
If we don’t get on this promptly, it’s going to happen again. It’s just too damn easy for terrorists to ignore.
@Greg: The slide and bump fire devices could require a special license, as well as 30+mags for long and 20+ for hand, made to be as hard to obtain as an assault rifle., I hate restrictions cause the grabbers are never ever satisfied. Its always 1 or 2 more laws then we will solve the problem.
Guns and accessories are not the problem its always the intent of the operator.
What do you do with those that already own them? The ones who have never committed a crime, are they now criminals cause they purchased one prior to your new law? Will you pay the manufacturers for the destruction of existing inventory?
Do you really think terrorists care about your stinking laws?
@Richard Wheeler:
The facts often are.
So, in your mind, you think the way someone would promote lawful ownership of firearms is to open up and massacre people? THIS makes sense to you? I lean towards him having a different motive.
And, yes, it has been shown that a leftist organized the white supremacist rally.
@Greg: Then, they could wait outside with cargo trucks and mow down the patrons as they flow out of the stadium. Do we need to ban trucks, too?
Once we know the motivation behind Paddock, we can target the suspicious people, not simply those the left want to oppress.
@Deplorable Me: Its the lefts logic like fast and furious and healthcare, create a big problem so they can solve it, by snatching our rights.
Pick a any crowded setting, one concealed firing position, and add one nut case or terrorist with an AK-47 or AR-15 or whatever, accessorized with this readily available, currently legal “toy.” Can anyone with a smidgen of intelligence and imagination honestly say that you haven’t multiplied the amount of carnage that can follow exponentially?
Sale of these things should be tightly restricted or totally banned for the same reason the sale of fully automatic weapons is tightly restricted. The same goes for high-capacity magazines. Not doing so is stupid, and political cowardice.
@Greg: Still takes a person behind the trigger motivated by the desire, for whatever reason, to murder. So, take radical Islamic immigration, left wing racism and left wing hate promotion seriously and we have addressed a large portion of the threat.
If liberals were actually serious about a concern for public safety, they would be doing this. Instead, they are talking about the NRA.
Desire alone isn’t responsible for the 1.4 million deaths by firearm in the United States since 1968. There aren’t that many nails that get driven in using a bare fist. The NRA has innocent blood on its hands. They’ve stood in the way of responsible legislation that even a majority of gun owners consider entirely reasonable. They’re a tool of the gun industry, not the protector of a Constitutional right.
@Greg: Aside from accidental shootings and justified homicides, each of those deaths are the result of someone with the intention of using a gun for violence. NO guns went out on the streets of Chicago all by themselves and killed innocent people on their front porches or kids at a bus stop. Keep in mind that Obama released thousands of violent criminals from prison in the name of “social justice”.
No, they don’t. The NRA doesn’t do anything but protect the 2nd Amendment. There has been no “responsible legislation” proposed that the NRA opposed or that has not been enacted. What is unfortunate is how you whiny leftists overreact to each tragedy, leaping to exploit them politically as much as possible, with idiotic claims of a “gun show loophole” or “universal background checks”. There is no loophole, there are no “assault weapons” and we HAVE background checks. The main message put forth by you liberals is that you know nothing about guns, have no real idea what gun control you want, other than outright bans and confiscation, and you have no clue as to how to match a threat with a solution.
The Las Vegas massacre happens every week in Chicago, but you leftists CHOOSE to simply turn a blind eye to the (another) huge mess you’ve created.
But, if you feel the NRA has some blood on its hands, you must think Obama is DRENCHED in the blood of the Las Vegas victims.
http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/bump-stock-device-received-atf-green-light-during-obama-administration.515786/
I didn’t even know these things existed before Sunday. Now, do you have any idea how many people will want them? Of those, how many might have evil intentions, not just looking for the fun of going full auto on some milk jugs filled with water? Particularly with ANTIFA having the full backing of the Democrat party and the liberal media constantly contributing to the theme that all Republicans deserve to be killed, the threat of violence is ever-increasing. The necessity of free citizens needing self-protection increases at the same rate.
And Obama made them legal. How. About. That.
Really, Greg. Let me know if you think Obama has “blood on his hands”.
@Greg: There you took time to think and are backing off from banning the assessories.
Do you know even replicating replacement parts of assault weapons privately owned is illegal?
The officials of Chicago that keep chucking one useless law after another preventing law abiding citizens from defending themselves have lots more blood on their hands.
1.4 million deaths since 68, 2.5 million per year used for self defense.
http://thepoliticalinsider.com/gun-control-statistics/
@Deplorable Me:
Surely you must realize that the “Obama is going to confiscate your guns” hysteria ginned up by the NRA was nothing more than an 8-year marketing campaign on behalf of the firearm industry. Sales skyrocketed as a result. Handgun production tripled during Obama’s time in office to meet the increased demand. Shootings have now become the 3rd leading cause of death for children in America. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so damn pathetic.
@Greg:
Law proposed by Democrat in Georgia to ban and confiscate semi-automatic weapons
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20160115/anti-gun-lawmakers-introduce-gun-confiscation-bill-in-georgia
California confiscating guns
http://www.infowars.com/gun-confiscation-begins-in-california/
Man’s gun collection confiscated because he asked for help; how gun confiscation will work
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article45573126.html
Illegal gun confiscations
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/9747098/Illegal_police_gun_confiscatio
DOJ using “Operation Choke Point” to target legal businesses liberals don’t like
http://www.usatoday.com/…/justice-department…/9594113/
Connecticut to confiscate guns
http://www.rightwingnews.com/…/confirmed-gun…/
Another Obama radical nominee wants to require health care patients to declare gun ownership
http://www.gaypatriot.net/…/mr-obamas-radical-left…/
Gun confiscation begins in Connecticut
http://www.theblaze.com/…/looks-like-weimar-germany…/
Californians suspicious (as they should be) of new data base
http://www.sacbee.com/…/california-gun-owners-warily…
John Bolton; UN Arms Trade Treaty lays groundwork for registration
http://www.newsmax.com/…/bolton-un…/2013/04/15/id/499506
Colorado’s gun bill would ban pump shotguns that can add magazine extensions
http://denver.cbslocal.com/…/popular-standard-shotgun…/
The secret of HR720 & S34 & S54
http://floppingaces.net/…/gun-control-through-deception/
Pennsylvania insurance law for gun ownership
http://floppingaces.net/…/pennsylvania-democrats…/…
Colorado gun control pushed by administration
http://spectator.org/…/20/ground-zero-for-gun-control/1…
nah, they don’t want to take our guns…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GUN_CONTROL…
Obama tells author “people should not be able to own guns”
http://cnsnews.com/…/author-quotes-then-professor-obama…
Yeah, how could we fall for such a thing?
I guess you forgot, but you didn’t address the very item you leftist are citing as the next great threat to mankind… the “bump stock”.
@kitt, #59:
People should stop citing Chicago. Contrary to campaign claims made by Donald Trump and later repeated by the Trump White House, Chicago does not have “the strictest gun laws in the country.” That might have been true back in 1982, but Chicago’s handgun ban was nullified by the courts in 2010, and its concealed carry ban was struck down 2 years later.
@Deplorable Me:
I don’t know, but you clearly still are. It probably has to do with the sort of slanted news stories you just listed—the very thing that drove the surge in firearm sales.
@Greg:
I’ll bet you wish they would.
So, you think making CHL legal (though prohibitively expensive, per liberal plan) is making Chicago almost the most dangerous place on earth? WHO falls for ridiculous tales?
Again, you missed another perfect opportunity to address Obama making the “bump stock” legal again after Bush banned it.
@Greg:
Perhaps we should just refer to democrat controlled hell holes of murder.
When you are told you are a powerless victim over and over something happens to the psyche and it isnt good.
Rank City Homicide Rate (Per 100,000 People)
1 Baltimore (Maryland) 51.10
2 Detroit (Michigan) 44.70
3 New Orleans (Louisiana) 44.50
4 Kansas City (Missouri/Kansas) 42.46
5 Cleveland (Ohio) 35.30
6 Memphis (Tennessee) 34.70
7 Newark (New Jersey) 33.00
8 St. Louis (Missouri) 27.75
9 Chicago (Illinois) 27.30
10 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) 24.10
11 Atlanta (Georgia) 23.90
12 Oakland (California) 20.90
13 Miami (Florida) 20.09
14 Washington (D.C.) 19.80
15 Cinncinati (Ohio) 19.70
This page was last updated on August 25, 2017.
@kitt: Why are you politicizing this?–Saying this guy was a Dem. for instance? Or talking about Chicago? Deflection perhaps?? Can we agree on outlawing sales of slide and bump fire devices? Stronger background checks? 14 day waiting period?,Will the NRA concede any ground–they are the voice of gun manufacturers–not the people.
The shooting sounded exactly like an M-60 machine gun–that type of fire power should be restricted—somehow–to the military..
@Richard Wheeler:
Oh, L O R D!!
Guess who legalized them? Just guess!!
Uh… it is.
@Deplorable Me: Legalized under BHO–ok. Not my question–Will the Congress with support of NRA make their sale illegal? Should be slam dunk.
Automatic weapons Restricted to military–Outstanding.
Stricter background checks – believe there is a bi-partisan bill ready to be brought to floor—Speaker Ryan–just do it.
EASY
@Richard Wheeler: No, not your question. The question is NEVER why we keep fixing the same problems or why your media is not trumpeting the genesis of THIS issue, even as they make an abnormally large case of it.
The point is, the left is not really serious about solving the problem of gun violence. They are only interested in exploiting the tragedies to further the anti-gun agenda.
I am completely sick of the two-faced hypocrisy of the left on this issue (among others). I cherish my rights, including my 2nd Amendment rights and do not intend to sit silently as the left makes every effort and attempt to undercut them all.
@Richard Wheeler: #66 Cause of a comment that the NRA has innocent blood on their hands. The NRA has always been for responsible gun ownership.
@Deplorable Me: No one wants your gun Bill-buck up–use common sense–stop being so combative about everything–maybe it’s just your personality.
Relax–have a drink–play some music. Life is good.
BTW 1st Amendment -Trump’s “fake news” meme—he’s the one passing the BS–smart people see right through him.
@Greg:
So you think if the bump fire and high capacity magazines were illegal that he would not have used them? Wasn’t it illegal for him to shoot anyone? Did that fact keep him from shooting? No country that limits firearm ownership has lowered the murder rates. It might change ‘how’ they are murdered, but not ‘if’ they are murdered.
@Greg: 55
So your thinking is, I’m gonna take my automatic machine gun with my 30 round magazine over to the Mandalay and shoot some people. Huh? What, those items are illegal. Oh, ok, then I’ll have to find something else to use then, I wouldn’t want to do anything illegal in shooting those 500 people. Oh, it’s not illegal to shoot anyone, is it?
@Richard Wheeler:
I direct your attention to this post above (@Deplorable Me: ) where I provide numerous examples of the intentions and actions of the left to ban and confiscate guns. This is by no means a comprehensive list; just what I have run across. Honesty is not met with combativeness; dishonesty is.
Again, you are totally wrong and you are definitely NOT paying attention. The left is trying to suppress the 1st Amendment, by utilizing the corrupt liberal media to distribute false reports about “bump stocks”, the NRA, “loopholes” and “reasonable gun control” on the one hand and by deploying their “muscle”, ANTIFA, to loudly and violently stop free speech. Your “smart people” were led to believe in Hillary and have been fed lies about Trump, to the point that violence breaks out all across the nation. Your “smart people” are led to believe the fascist ANTIFA is fighting fascists. No, Rich… you are referencing lemming… dolts… “useful idiots”… fools. For instance, Tillerson yesterday had to have a news conference to tell the world that NBC lies and maintain the integrity of the government. Fake news is corrosive and destructive and it is issued by whiny, crybaby, spiteful losers… the left. Liberals. Democrats. “Smart people”, as you term it.
@Redteam: Unless you live in NV you best contact the ATF because crossing state lines with that machine gun requires special permission. You get get in BIG trouble transporting it.
Bill called this one earlier, my crystal ball says large pumpkin sales increasing/2017-10-04/gun-buyers-bid-up-bump-fire-stocks-used-in-las-vegas-massacre