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Vegas Shooting!

MikeD

I'm Your Huckleberry
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Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-mandalay-bay-resort-casino/

I keep hearing different numbers from each news source.

Horrible incident and my thoughts go out to all involved.

Events like this are the number one reason people should be allowed to carry and carry everywhere.

but...

Prepare for another wave of "common sense", for the children, public safety, {insert terms that pulls at the heartstrings here}, anti-gun knee-jerk legislation and media tidal wave..

Never let a crisis go to waste.

LAS VEGAS – A shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 200 others late Sunday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.

It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

He said the man authorities think was the sole gunman was killed by police on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a country music festival.

"We believe it's a solo actor. A lone wolf," Lombardo said.

He said the gunman is an area resident.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News a search warrant has been issued for the home of the shooter, identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada.

Two law enforcement sources told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that at this point, it doesn't appear the shooting was an act of terrorism. The suspect was known to police in Mesquite and had a criminal history, the sources said.

Lombardo said authorities believe they had found a traveling companion of the deceased gunman they were seeking, who Lombardo identified as Marilou Danley. Law enforcement sources tell Milton that Danley was Paddock's wife.

marilou-danley.jpg

Image released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department of Marilou Danley

HANDOUT / REUTERS
Lombardo added that authorities had tracked down two vehicles believed associated with the shooting.

Two off-duty police officers attending the concert were killed, Lombardo said. An on-duty officer was in critical condition and another was wounded, Lombardo said.

A Bakersfield, California police officer was shot and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Bakersfield department said its officers weren't in position to return fire when the shooting broke out.

2017-10-02t082736z-843361081-rc16cfacf310-rtrmadp-3-usa-lasvegas-shooting.jpg

A body is covered with a sheet after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017

STEVE MARCUS / REUTERS
The FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were assisting local authorities with the investigation, the agencies said.

The White House issued a statement saying President Trump "has been briefed on the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas. We are monitoring the situation closely and offer our full support to state and local officials. All of those affected are in our thoughts and prayers."

Dozens of patrol vehicles descended on the Strip after authorities received reports of an active shooter near the festival.

Concert-goers reported seeing muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay and the sound of what they described as automatic gunfire.

Fifty people were admitted to the University Medical Center, a spokesperson told CBS News. Of those, at least two died and several were in critical condition, the spokesperson added.

CBS News has been told at least three other area hospitals were taking in shooting victims.

gettyimages-856536570.jpg

People run from Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gunfire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas

DAVID BECKER / GETTY IMAGES
Country singer Jason Aldean was playing near the end of the concert when gunfire began.

Later, he took to Instragram, saying, "Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate."



Las Vegas music festival shooting

Authorities shut down part of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15.

Some flights destined for the McCarran International Airport were diverted due to the shooting.

One witness told CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV he or she heard nearly 100 rounds fired off.

Witnesses at the music festival told the station they heard what sounded like firecrackers going off, but they were rounds fired from a gun.

Witnesses told KLAS people were also seen running with injuries and blood.

Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said he and his girlfriend were watching Aldean's performance when he heard what sounded like fireworks. The music stopped temporarily and started up again before another round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.

Thousands fled as bursts of gunfire could be heard for more than five minutes, Yazzie said.

Jose Baggett, 31, a Las Vegas resident, said he and a friend were in the lobby of the Luxor hotel-casino - directly north of the festival - when people began running. He said people were crying and as he and his friend walked away, they encountered police checkpoints where officers were carrying shotguns and assault rifles.

"There were armored personnel vehicles, SWAT vehicles, ambulances, and at least a half-mile of police cars," Baggett said.

Witnesses said they saw multiple victims and dozens of ambulances near the concert venue. Some attendees later huddled in the basement of the nearby Tropicana hotel-casino.

Officers carrying assault rifles ran into the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

This is a developing story and will be updated.
 
I have read a lot of conflicting news reports and willful misleading and ignorance.

My prayers for the victims and their families right now.
 
Thank you John A. I listened to the video at <link> and timed the three bursts.
Right at 10 seconds even.
I'm guessing a 100-round beta drum on an M16.
images
 
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Some 59 people died and more than 527 were hurt when a 64-year-old gunman with an arsenal of at least 10 rifles fired on Las Vegas country music festival on Sunday, raining down bullets from a 32nd-floor window for several minutes before killing himself.

The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary, would make the mass shooting the deadliest in U.S. history, eclipsing last year's massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club by a gunman who pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants.

Some 22,000 people were in the crowd when a man police identified as Stephen Paddock opened fire, sparking a panic in which some people trampled on others, as law enforcement officers scrambled to locate the gunman.

Shocked concert goers, some with blood on their clothing, wandered the streets afterwards.

Police said they had no information about Paddock's motive, that he had no criminal record and was not believed to be connected to any militant group. Paddock killed himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.

"We have no idea what his belief system was," Lombardo said.

A senior U.S. government official told Reuters that Paddock's name was not on any database of suspected terrorists.

Lombardo said there were more than 10 rifles in the room where Paddock killed himself after checking into the hotel on Thursday.

The dead included one off-duty police officer, Lombardo said. Two on-duty officers were injured, including one who was in stable condition after surgery and one who sustained minor injuries, Lombardo said. Police warned the death toll may rise.

As sunrise approached, police were still finding people who had taken cover during the attack, Lombardo said.

"It's going to take time for us to get through the evacuation phase," Lombardo said.

'JUST KEPT GOING ON'

Video of the attack showed panicked crowds fleeing as sustained rapid gunfire ripped through the area.

"People were just dropping to the ground. It just kept going on," said Steve Smith, a 45-year-old visitor from Phoenix, Arizona, who had flown in for the concert. He said the gunfire went on for an extended period of time.

"Probably 100 shots at a time," Smith said. "It would sound like it was reloading and then it would go again."

Las Vegas's casinos, nightclubs and shopping draw some 3.5 million visitors from around the world each year and the area was packed with visitors when the shooting broke out shortly after 10 p.m.

Shares of U.S. casino operators fell in early trading on Wall Street, with MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay, down 4 percent. Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, Wynn Resorts Ltd and Las Vegas Sands Corp each fell 1 to 2 percent.

Mike McGarry, a financial adviser from Philadelphia, 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," McGarry said. The back of his shirt bore footmarks, after people ran over him in the panicked crowd.

The shooting broke out on the final night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest festival, a sold-out event featuring top acts such as Eric Church, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean.

"Tonight has been beyond horrific," Aldean said in a statement on Instagram. "It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone."

'WE'RE HORRIFIED'

The suspected shooter's brother, Eric Paddock, said the family was stunned.

"We have no idea. We're horrified. We're bewildered and our condolences go out to the victims," Eric Paddock said in a brief telephone interview, his voice trembling. "We have no idea in the world."

U.S. President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the victims via a post on Twitter.

"My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Vegas shooting. God bless you!" said Trump, who was due to address the nation at 10:30 a.m. ET.

As with previous U.S. mass shootings, the incident sparked anger among advocates for gun control. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to bear arms, and gun-rights advocates staunchly defend that provision.

"It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something," said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, where 26 young children and educators were killed in an attack on a school in 2012.

"This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren't public policy responses to this epidemic."

The rampage was reminiscent of a mass shooting at a Paris rock concert in November 2015 that killed 89 people, part of a wave of coordinated attacks by Islamist militants that left 130 dead.
 
Stephen Paddock: What we know about Las Vegas shooting suspect

The suspected gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history was a 64-year-old Nevada resident who fired out of his room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino before turning his gun on himself, police said.

Las Vegas Police said Stephen Paddock was found dead when a SWAT team breached his room on the 32nd floor of the resort and casino, located across the street from the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert.

He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound just as police burst their way into the room, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Undersheriff Kevin McMahill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Police found that Paddock was in possession of more than 10 rifles.

Paddock checked in as a hotel guest on Sept. 28 before the attack, which left at least 50 people dead and more than 200 injured, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.

Eric Paddock, his brother, told The Daily Mail that there was "absolutely no indication he could do something like this.

"He has no political affiliation, no religious affiliation, as far as we know," Eric Paddock said. "Our condolences go to the victims and all their families."

Lombardo said police are investigating how Paddock got the weapons into the hotel and if he had been hiding them.

"We've located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied," Lombardo told the media.

He added: "We have no idea what his belief system was. Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor and the scene is static."

Responding officers used an explosive device to force the door open into Paddock's room, law enforcement officials told Fox News.

Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Paddock "was known to local authorities," in Las Vegas. But police in Mesquite, where Paddock lived, said he never had any run-ins with officers, the Desert Valley Times reported.

Police initially sought a woman believed to be Paddock's roommate, Marilou Danley, as "person of interest." Detectives later made contact with her, and "do not believe she is involved with the shooting on the strip."

Eric told The Daily Mail that Danley is Paddock's girlfriend.

The pair lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, about an hour northeast of Las Vegas.

Paddock apparently was the manager of the apartment complex -- which was being searched by police early Monday morning -- FOX 5 News reported.

"He was just a guy," Eric Paddock told The Daily Mail. "Something happened, he snapped or something, he was just a guy."
 
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - ... "People were just dropping to the ground. It just kept going on," said Steve Smith, a 45-year-old visitor from Phoenix, Arizona, ... He said the gunfire went on for an extended period of time. "Probably 100 shots at a time," Smith said. "It would sound like it was reloading and then it would go again." ...
Yeah. He was there and had the same impression I had.
 
HERE IT COMES...

Las Vegas Gun Laws: Open Carry, Machine Guns Legal

Nevada has some of the most-relaxed gun laws in the country, a legislative condition that is sure to come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history on Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Nevada law does not require firearms owners to have licenses, register their weapons, or limits the number of firearms an individual posses. Automatic assault weapons and machine guns are also legal in the state as long as they are registered and are possessed in adherence to federal law, according to the National Rifle Association.

Nevada does not prohibit the transfer or possession of assault weapons, 50 caliber rifles or large capacity ammunition magazines. Local law enforcement issues concealed handgun licenses. Open carry is legal without a permit.

Anti-gun activists did score a narrow victory last year by passing Question 1, a resolution calling for background checks through a licensed gun dealer for all sales in the state, even private and online sales.

Initial reports on social media appear to have shown that lone-wolf shooter Stephen Paddock used a high-caliber automatic weapon in the the Las Vegas shooting. In footage shared of the attack scores of rounds of ammunition can be heard going off in a matter of seconds.

Such weapons were previously prohibited under the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban which expired in 2004. Several lawmakers have attempted to renew the ban, coming closest, but still failing, after the Newtown school shooting in 2012.

The Coalition to Stop Gun violence has said it is “no surprise” that perpetrators of mass shootings favor such weapons. “Assault weapons are designed to maximize lethality; they are intended to kill as many humans as possible as quickly as possible,” the anti-gun group said.

The gun lobby has been deeply critical of new laws in Nevada enforcing the background checks, legislation supported by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Question 1 initiative is the subject of legal challenges and it is unclear who would carry out the checks.

Nevada has carried out these checks since 1998. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal the FBI, which the new legislation said would carry out the checks, has declined to do so because they are not federally mandated.
 
As usual they will probably try to spin it so that it appears that anyone who wants one can easily buy a FA firearm anywhere anytime from any online store without even an ID check and have it shipped ready to fire to their door.
 
Hillary Clinton slammed for ‘ignorant’ statement on guns after Las Vegas shooting...

Hillary Clinton took heat Monday for issuing what critics called an “ignorant” and “irrelevant” statement going after the NRA and silencers in the hours after the Las Vegas mass shooting.

As details were still emerging about the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history – which killed at least 58 people – the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee took to Twitter to imagine how much deadlier the massacre might have been if silencers had been used.

“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get,” she tweeted, adding: “Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”

It was an apparent reference to the NRA’s push to ease federal rules for silencers.

But conservative critics quickly hit back, saying silencers probably would only moderately dampen the sound of gunfire in this kind of attack – especially from what was described as a high-powered weapon.

“Suppressors only reduce by a few decibels, still same decibel level as a jackhammer,” tweeted Dana Loesch, a talk radio host and NRA spokeswoman.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, editor in chief of The Daily Wire, blasted Clinton’s tweets as “Ignorant, irrelevant and exploitative.”

Radio host and CIA veteran Buck Sexton had a similar take: “Appallingly stupid, and entirely irrelevant, Mrs Clinton She knows nothing about firearms, and even worse, she doesn't care.”

It’s unclear what weapons the shooter, identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, was using. Witnesses described the sound of rapid automatic gunfire – which many believed to be firecrackers – ringing out as thousands ran for cover. One vendor told Fox News that “it sounded like a machine gun.” Authorities said the shooter had more than 10 rifles in the hotel room where he fired on concert-goers below.

The casualties in the attack exceeded those of the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Florida more than a year ago. As with the Pulse attack, the Las Vegas shooting led to prompt calls from Democrats – not just Clinton – for gun legislation, though the party has struggled to tighten laws even when the Obama administration was in power.

Connecticut’s senators, who have been especially outspoken on gun control ever since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, were among the first to issue statements Monday.

“Nowhere but America do horrific large-scale mass shootings happen with this degree of regularity,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in a statement. “This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren't public policy responses to this epidemic. There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something."

Connecticut’s other Democratic senator, Richard Blumenthal, issued a similar statement.

“It has been barely a year since what was previously the largest mass shooting in American history – the deadly attack at Pulse nightclub. In the interim, thousands more have been lost to the daily, ruthless toll of gun violence. Still, Congress refuses to act. I am more than frustrated, I am furious,” he said.

As the lawmakers seemed to acknowledge, gun legislation stands little chance of passing under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

After the Pulse shooting, Senate Democrats launched a 15-hour filibuster followed by a Democratic sit-in on the House floor in a high-profile push for gun control legislation. But the divided Senate ultimately rejected all four gun measures put on the floor for a vote.

The battle over gun restrictions has, meanwhile, played out in a more substantive fashion on the state level – and at the courts.

Most recently, a federal appeals court last week delivered a win for gun rights activists by keeping in place another court’s ruling that it was unconstitutional for the District of Columbia to require gun owners to provide a “good reason” for legally carrying a concealed weapon in the nation’s capital. The dispute could be on a path to the Supreme Court.


AAsNCet.img
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...Stupid Irrelevant Liberal...
 
Respects to the victims and families...


If I had my tin-foil hat on, I'd wonder whether a 64 yo man, with no criminal record or apparent motive, who was found dead in the room actually WAS the shooter.....

No doubt they'll swab his skin for powder traces... what if they don't find any..?

Edit: I was typing this at the same time as John A, but reading his post makes me even more suspicious... the "shooter " was only ID'd a couple of hours ago, but already someone has found photos and videos of him at political demos..??
 
Well Hillary, I'm sure the reason he didn't use a suppressor when in the comission of breaking multiple federal and local laws was because they are are hard to get.
 
Things aren't adding up.

Guy checks into hotel on or around 9/28 and stays for days preparing.

News insists no motive or criminal background.

Interview with brother says he "wasn't a gun guy".

Smuggles in 10+ guns, ammunition, and other articles under the noses of trained security personnel with some of the highest tech CCTV and other devices known to man. It's well known that casinos have far better security than even many small banks due to the millions of dollars that exchange hands their weekly.

Also noticed two separate windows being out, well away from each other.

2017-10-02t14-32-26-466z--1280x720.nbcnews-ux-1080-600.jpg
 
Something else that struck me as weird.... latest news is 58 dead and 518 injured, so 580-600ish hits..... but how many rounds did he fire..?!?

On none of the video clips do i hear more than 3 long (100rd) bursts (although maybe none of the clips are of the entire event)
 
The two separate windows ( in the same room ) being out gave him better fields of fire and smoke ventilation from his 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay perch.

It wasn’t the hundreds of muzzle flashes that exploded from the shooter’s rifles that gave away his position.

Nor was it the panicked 911 calls from people reporting the rhythmic thundering of gunfire.

It was the smoke.

The SWAT team used the alarm triggered by the smoke to zero in on Paddock’s position in about 20 minutes — not nearly enough time for a floor-by-floor search of the hotel, which has 3,309 rooms and a 135,000-square-foot casino.


After they located his room, the SWAT team members used explosives to get inside, the sheriff’s office said. Paddock, 64, killed himself before the officers entered, according to Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

Paddock’s room had a bird’s-eye view of the concert grounds.

“He rained down hell on those people,” Sutton told The Washington Post. “Hundreds of rounds. The sheriff said that there were several firearms found in the room. He was extremely well armed. He must have brought plenty more ammunition, already loaded into magazines.”

Police think Paddock had been staying at the Mandalay Bay hotel since Thursday, concealing a cache of weapons.

It does not take long for the smoke from a fired round to fill a room, especially a small one without any ventilation.

“Each shot fired releases a small quantity of harmful dust and gases,” according to guidelines from the National Air Filtration Association.

Gases and particulates can build up even in firing ranges where there is appropriate ventilation, sparking concerns that officers could be sickened during training.
 
Multiple police officers, both on and off duty, were among those killed or injured after a gunman opened fire Sunday night at a country music festival opposite the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, officials said.

One local off-duty officer died, while two others who were on duty were wounded by gunfire, said Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo. Of the two wounded, one is stable after surgery and the other sustained minor injuries, he said.

"It's a devastating time," Lombardo said.

Many off-duty police officers from Los Angeles, Orange County, Bakersfield and other agencies traveled to Vegas for the show.

One Orange County sheriff's deputy was severely wounded by gunshot wounds to the abdomen and thigh, according to the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. The wives of two deputies were also reported wounded in the attack. A Bakersfield officer was wounded in the gunfire and was taken to a hospital for treatment, said Bakersfield Police Lt. Jeff Burdick.

They were expected to survive.

"Our officers were actually attending the concert as civilians," said Burdick, adding that the agency has accounted for every officer known to be there. "Keeping our fingers crossed that that's good info."

An off-duty LAPD officer was also wounded in the shooting - struck in the leg, a department spokeswoman confirmed. The officer, who is assigned to the LAPD's Foothill Division, was listed in stable condition.The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department also confirmed that off-duty personnel were at the festival, and that two were hit by gunfire. Both were transported to a local hospital, where one remains in critical condition and the other is listed in stable condition, authorities said.

None of the officers were identified.
 
Las Vegas gunman’s father was on FBI’s Most Wanted list...

The father of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was previously on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, law enforcement officials confirmed to CNN on Monday.

Benjamin Hoskins Paddock appeared on the agency’s infamous registry from June 10, 1969 through May 5, 1977 and was described in an FBI poster as being “diagnosed as psychopathic” and as an individual reported to have “suicidal tendencies” who “has carried firearms in commission of bank robberies.”

The poster states that Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, known also by several aliases including “Big Daddy,” “Chromedome” and “Old Baldy,” was convicted of bank robbery and automobile theft.

Paddock landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after he escaped from a Texas federal prison in 1960. He had been sentenced to 20 years following a bank robbery conviction, according to a 1978 newspaper article in the Eugene Register.

The paper said Benjamin Hoskins Paddock lived in Oregon’s Eugene-Springfield area for several years under the name Bruce Werner Ericksen.

Earlier Monday, Eric Paddock — the brother of the las Vegas shooter — told reporters outside of his home in Orlando, Florida, that he was born while his father was on the run from authorities.

“I didn’t know him. We didn’t know him,” Eric Paddock said. “He was never with my mom. I was born on the run and that’s the last time he was ever associated with by our family.”

As for what motivated the actions of his brother, Eric Paddock said he and his family are “still just completely befuddled.”

Authorities are still investigating the possible motivation behind what is now the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

 
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