Stephen Paddock did the unthinkable. He broke out two windows on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, aimed a rifle at a crowd of 22 thousand open air concert goers and fired into their midst. His attack killed 58 people and wounded 546, some of whom remain critically injured, many lifelong. Why did he do it?
The answer is all about Stephen Paddock’s personality. But first let’s look at all the things he wasn’t . . .
Stephen Paddock Wasn’t An ISIS Operative
Various fighting forces have defeated or back-footed ISIS in their former Middle Eastern “safe havens.” The terrorists’ claim that Mr. Paddock killed in their name reflects ISIS’s growing desperation. Nothing more.
There’s no evidence linking the Islamic terrorist organization to the 64-year-old Silver State killer, or indications that he “self-radicalized.” If Mr. Paddock had been a radical Islamic terrorist, he would’ve announced his religious affiliation or left behind a statement of some sort identifying his “cause.”
Stephen Paddock Wasn’t A Gun Control Advocate
Mr. Paddock’s heinous act was a gift to the civilian disarmament industrial complex. But there’s no evidence that Mr. Paddock was a homicidal anti-gun crusader (like LA cop turned mass murderer Christopher Dorner). Mr. Paddock had no known known affiliation with a gun control organization, nor did he make any pronouncements about gun control on social media.
Stephen Paddock Wasn’t An Antifa Operative
It’s safe to assume that a large portion of the 22 thousand people attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival were Republican-leaning conservatives. But there’s no evidence Mr. Paddock engaged in progressive political activity prior to his attack.
Months before the Mandalay Bay attack, Mr. Paddock reserved multiple suites in the Ogden hotel overlooking Vegas’ Life is Beautiful Festival. He also booked a room in the Blackstone Hotel overlooking Chicago’s Lollapalooza gathering. Neither of those events attract a “right-wing” or conservative crowd.
So Why Did He Do It?
Assuming the police aren’t covering up evidence pointing to any of the motivations listed above, we’re left with a simple fact: Mr. Paddock’s motives were personal. But how can you call the killer’s attack “personal” when he shot at a swirling mass of strangers from 32 floors up and hundreds of yards away?
You can’t. The Mandalay Bay shooting was an act of indiscriminate slaughter, the kind of attack that can only be carried out by a man who lacks the ability to create or maintain emotional connections with other people. Soon after the Mandalay Bay shooting cnn.com offered these insights into Mr. Paddock’s personality:
“Steve was a private guy — that’s why you can’t find any motive,” his younger brother Eric told reporters . . .
He met [his girlfriend Marilou] Danley after he started buying up properties around Reno, Nevada, in 2012. She worked as a hostess for high rollers at Club Paradise at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa.
Some people, including Eric Paddock, said they were a devoted couple, but others sensed a cold disconnect between them.
For someone who led such an adventurous life, Paddock didn’t seem to like other people much. If he was often generous with friends and loved ones, he was taciturn with others.
Real estate agents said he paid cash for the Mesquite house. Neighbors seldom saw him, and when they did, he rarely waved. He erected a privacy fence, telling a neighbor that he didn’t want to see anybody and he didn’t want anybody seeing him . . .
He favored a private suite reserved for high-bet video poker players, tucked away from the main casino floor, behind low walls lined with slot machines.
According to CNN, law enforcement labeled the killer’s bank-robbing father “a dangerous psychopath with suicidal tendencies.” And there you have it. Like father, like son. Stephen Paddock was a psychopath.
While the definition of psychopathy is subject to debate, experts agree that psychopathy has a genetic component, and that psychopaths lack the ability to experience empathy with their fellow man. They’re beyond selfish. They’re emotionally disconnected from human society.
Most psychopaths aren’t violent. Some are. Psychopaths are fully capable of committing horrific crimes without hesitation, guilt or remorse.
Experts connect psychopathy with antisocial personality and obsessive–compulsive disorders. The former accounts for Mr. Paddock’s lack of a social conscience (enabling mass murder). The latter explains his decision to bring 23 firearms into his hotel room, including 12 equipped with bump fire stocks.
And now the two questions vexing victims, investigators, media pundits and the nation at large: why did he do it and why did he stop?
“He was a gambler, that was his job,” Stephen Paddock’s brother Eric told nytimes.com. “He was a wealthy guy, playing video poker, who went cruising all the time and lived in a hotel room.”
The Las Vegas Gaming Commission revealed that Mr. Paddock made 16 “transactions” of $10lk or more with various casinos leading up to his death. Before his suicide, Mr. Paddock transferred $100k to his girlfriend’s bank in the Philippines.
The police and casinos have refused to disclose whether Mr. Paddock ended his life as a debtor. Given that he’d been gambling for over thirty years, it’s entirely possible that Stephen Paddock was that most valued of casino customers: a successful gambler. By which I mean one who didn’t go bankrupt. A man who parlayed real estate speculation into decades of video poker.
And got bored.
At some point, months before the Mandalay Bay attack, Mr. Paddock found a new, more interesting and more challenging pursuit than flipping houses or endless rounds of soulless, isolated, all-night video poker: mass murder.
Over a period of years, Stephen Paddock acquired dozens of firearms (in three states) and thousand of rounds of ammunition. He equipped twelve rifles with bump fire stocks, secured a stack of 100-round magazines and practiced firing his weapons.
As stated above, he scouted multiple locations (that we know about). When Stephen Paddock eventually settled on the Mandalay Bay hotel, he ferried firearms and ammo to his suite, readied a hammer to break the windows, secured a nearby door with hardware and placed wifi-enabled cameras in the hallway.
When security guard Jesus Campos interrupted Mr. Paddock’s final preparations, the killer repelled the threat by shooting through his door. Some time after — reported as both six minutes and forty seconds — he broke two windows and opened fire on the crowd below.
Ten minutes after he started, Stephen Paddock stopped shooting. He did so for the same reason the gambler ended his marathon video poker sessions: he was done. He’d done what he’d set out to do. More to the point, he quit while he was ahead.
The psychopath with suicidal tendencies wanted to die by his own hand. He didn’t want arriving police to shoot him to death or, worse, take him alive. That would be “losing.” So he stopped shooting at the crowd and killed himself before the first police officers arrived at his door.
Some pundits have suggested the former IRS worker was motivated by a desire for notoriety/immortality, achieved by racking up the highest-ever body count for a single shooter in the U.S. I doubt it. Mr. Paddock was a psychopath, a self-made killer who didn’t care what anyone thought of him before, during or after his attack.
I believe Stephen Paddock viewed mass murder as something to do. An interesting and challenging way to vent some personal frustrations and end his cold monotonous life. Such is the banality of evil, against which we should always be vigilant.
Still. Great elevated position, great enfilade, 22,000 potential targets.
And he only scored 58 kills. Whatever he set out to do, he failed.
Breivik scored more without bumpstock and such target rich environment. Paddock should have at least doubled Breivik.
Speaking of psychopaths. What a horrible thing to say: that he should have killed more?! Check yourself.
Oh please. Save the self righteous bs. Every mass shooting in America has been done by crazy amateurs with little or no training. And in some cases they suffered from significant learning disabilities. Paddock was a rank amateur using devices that do not optimize weapons performance, even if the increased his rate of fire some.
In planing to defeat future mass shooters we should be most worried about the fully trained and tooled up well motivated group of people with an agenda, even a horrific, crazy agenda. So stick your head back in the sand if you want but crying about your feels isn’t helping.
It’s not my “feels” that are at issue. Is “feels” in the OED as a noun prior to 2015 or so? How many anti-gunners do you think are out there looking for “I told you gun people are crazy” evidence. And someone posts on how this event could have been “more effective”. I’ve seen a few more of those.
I fully agree with the comments about future, possible more competent people attempting the same thing, but there have been more clear and “clean” presentations of that idea than this poster’s.
Unrelated…I was a PSIA Level II Instructor in my younger days.
Anti-gunners believe that gun show loopholes are a real thing, and that making everyone equally helpless makes everyone safe. If you can’t have a simple discussion comparing one shooting to another because of what some ignorant trolls might think then you’re one sad sack….
Factually his performance was sub par.
He got beat by a Norwegian jackass with a regular semi-auto and less targets. He barely beat a South Korean cop, who also didn’t have a target rich environment like that Vegas jackass.
So yeah, unimpressive. If you set out to kill as many people as possible, at least do it right. If you want to make a statement of your complete and utter insanity, at least do it right.
And cry me a river. On the same day this jackass killed 58 people, globally 150,000 people died. That’s around 56 million every year (around the population of France.) So excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me if I don’t break into tears and bash my head against some ludicrous “holy book” over 58 people I didn’t know and have zero connection to.
Yeah, it’s sad, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
Now go back to posting hashtags and changing your social media avatar to some Vegas overlay, because that sure as fuck changes things!
Not.
Words…words…I too would like to say some words…
My point is that in a climate where anti-gunners are looking for “all you want to do is kill people”, we shouldn’t be giving them fuel for their fires.
And, actually, this is the only media outlet I’ve posted to at all. I don’t have a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever account. It galls me that anyone things “feels” is a noun and that people say “ATM Machine” and “PIN Number”. It shows that people are not actually thinking about what they are saying. And, if you have to swear to express a point, you are the one with the emotional, and not rational, response.
No more time for this. Not productive. Over. Out.
A-Aron. You just got beat down by facts and logic. Take it all in!
Well… you are not wrong… Not that saying the idea of killing more people is a good thing, but I am picking up what you are putting down.
Well, I can concur on why he started, but I would quibble that he *may* have stopped when there were no longer huge contiguous targets impossible to miss. People scattered, and he could no longer kill with efficiency, so he was done. Similarly, I would *suspect* that most kills were in the first minute or 2, when he was shooting across a solid mass of heads, wherever the bullet arrived was likely to be a head shot.
I’m not saying it’s a good thing.
I’m saying that given the opportunity he had, his results were underwhelming. He got beat by Breivik with less targets and less weapons. He barely beat a South Korean cop, who also had less targets.
If you are this crazy and really flip on such a scale, at least do it right.
This is the part that people should be concerned about. Every time there’s one of these mass killings, I think of all the ways that the murderer could have killed a significantly higher number of people if he had just thought things through or been competent with weapons. It seems that for the most part, we are seeing amateur murderers. I dread the day—yet I know in my gut it’s coming—when a competent killer (or group of killers) decides to do something like this.
Morbid analysis, he absolutely would have had a higher body count with rapid aimed fire. 600 seconds and 100 round magazines, from rifles mounted on tripods would have netted much higher results than his indiscriminate spraying.
Mounted on “Tri-Pods”….? Get real. None of the weapons he had was mounted on a Tri-Pod ! That statement was one made by the media that had no or very little knowledge of firearms….. !
I am not saying he did. I am saying he could have. I use a shooting tripod for some of my work, and it very much simplifies the act of steadying a rifle for long-range standing shots.
The poster didn’t SAY he had tripod mounted weapons; I think he was surmising that “IF” he’d had them, he would have generated a higher body count. Perhaps reading the post carefully first, prior to self-righteous and indignant responses would be more appropriate
A couple of the pictures showed Bi-pods on a couple of rifles, but if you know anything about Bumpstocks, they dont work with bi-pods, they cancel each other out
I have typed a similar post several times and not published it, but yes, honestly, given similar conditions, the body count would have been higher.
I think it suggests just how bad his wiring truly was.
As the owner of a bump fire stock, I have personally attributed the low percentage of casualties to the the increased rate of fire. From fifty yards, you will only hit a man sized target with probably three shots of the thirty per magazine. If Paddock did not have access to the bump fire stock, the overall spread of his rounds over those ten minutes would’ve been dramatically condensed and more people would’ve been injured and killed. You’re absolutely right to think this could’ve been far worse, and these other nuts that think you’re sick for the thought haven’t ever offered critical thought to the subject. “Ban the bump fire stock” they say, which to any gun owner or furthermore, a bump-fire stock owner, would say “Nay, you’re an idiot for trying to make each individual shot more accurate by banning the one part of the weapon used that probably resulted in a lessening of casualties.”
A bump fire stock does not increase the rate of fire for that weapon system. It functions to allow the upper receiver to move freely while the buttstock is secured in the shoulder pocket. This just means the top part of the gun can move back and forth in cycle with the recoil of each round. A bipod does the opposite. A bipod does not increase the accuracy of a rifle. It increases the accuracy of the shooter by stabilizing the upper receiver so it doesn’t move around and the shooter can stay on target.
If you paid attention to this message then you should realize these are self defeating. You can’t have both of these accessories on your rifle and expect them to function properly. Meaning this shit doesn’t add up. Why aren’t we acknowledging this?!?!?!
“Why aren’t we acknowledging this?!?!?!”
You mean this?https://youtu.be/201CK5fvjsE
I think we should all be greatful that the sunuvabitch didn’t learn riflemanship in San Diego Ca. Or in Parris Island S.C. If he had decent training, and eschewed the BS bump stock and stuck with semi-auto/disciplimed fire, he could have killed over 500 and wounded 59. As sick as it sounds, if this psycho HAD BEEN a Marine, I’d be embarrased.
Why he did it: he was an alphabet agency asset of some sort. Where else did all the money come from? Assassin? Drug runner? Gun runner? He had two planes. Vegas doesn’t allow video poker players to make millions. He went rogue or was directed to do this.
Why he stopped: a handler shot him.
9/11 was an inside job.
I doubt it.
then you are ignoring the evidence. I am NOT a conspiracy nut but the evidence on 9/11 does NOT add up.
Sorry, only conspiracy nuts see one in 9/11
lol people that love to believe the official story crack me up. there are many incidents in the last 50 or so years that every time the facts dont in any way shape or form add up to what the official story is along with way too many other coincidences. Port Arthur in australia for example. there was a media conference happening in hobart which is just down the road at the time, there was also a medical conference whose focus was mass casualty trauma just finishing the same day as the shooting happened. this was with doctors and nurses from around the country. on top of that they had also recently (only 1 month before) bought a morgue van with a capacity for 22 bodies. this also BTW was on the market as soon as it was clear that john howard the traitor had gotten the desired legislation through. in that region a van even a little bigger than the one they had had available (able to cart 4) had never been needed prior or since. various eye witness accounts that dont go along with the official story have either had various things happen to them or simply disappeared . (one similar has already died supposedly of pituary cancer since the mandalay bay incident yet she was at the concert had done a huge write up of her story on facebook which if she was that sick that she died this soon after she would have been in a wheel chair to even go to the concert). then there is the fact that the govt of the day always has liberty removing legislation drawn up and ready to go before these events. now i am not saying either way whether they were set up by the govt or if it was just a random attack but it does seem rather strange the number of coincidences of outside occurrences at many of these sort of events
Look up operation northwoods. Even though it was a military op and never carried out it was approved and ready. Anyone would be foolish to think the various alphabet agencies haven’t carried out such operations. So long as the majority of people believe the official story, tyranny marches on.
Your mom is a 9/11.
Evidence for your claims?
Granted the article is an hypothesis, but at least it’s consistent with available information, and is a simpler explanation than yours without additional information.
Believe what you want, of course. But the biggest problem with any conspiracy is maintaining it.
Evidence AGAINST my claims?
That’s the beauty of conspiracies and resulting conspiracy theories.
Nope, if you’re going to propose a theory it’s up to you to prove it, not me to disprove it.
As I said you’re free to believe what you will. But that doesn’t mean I have to automatically believe it too unless you give me a good reason.
Where is the evidence he acted alone, then? My initial supposition was that he was dead after the very first shot, someone else completed the act and escaped. No evidence I have seen contradicts this.
So you assert a negative inference as the justification for conspiracy, instead of the description, which has been consistent, given some details are muddled. That actually makes conspiracy less likely, not more.
Sorry, no one of consequence, this is an internet comment forum.
No rules other than decorum apply. Especially your rules.
That’s the beauty of internet forum conspiracy theories.
He knew too much about the governments weather control device
Very Alinsky. Ridicule won’t discourage my open mind about event causation.
You sir are absolutely correct. Mr. Campos was that handler. MSM has the American people so blinded. Somebody owes us an explanation far better than the botched attempt that they tried. May be someone needs to ask the LV Russian mafia. Gov is not going to tell all, because it’s still an active operation. Also need to consider that the Sheople cannot handle the Truth. If MSM were to report correctly then we would be demanding unwarranted action against Russia considering the current nsrrative thst has been shobed down our throats.
It was more than boredom. This man hated his miserable existence and took revenge on life itself.
Yup. Just plain angry at the world.
Lots of speculation, we’ll find out the answers about the same time we find out who really killed JFK. Here’s what our betters think of us, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXoNE14U_zM
No casino would let him make a millionaire living playing video poker.
“No casino would let him make a millionaire living playing video poker.”
*So* much this.
Vegas ain’t in the business of losing money.
Players are watched, *closely* while in the casinos.
If a player starts consistently ‘beating the house’, they turn the surveillance ‘up to eleven’ (This is Spinal Tap’ -1984)
If you start consistently winning, it’s one of two things – The machine is defective, or you’re cheating.
They need no reason whatsoever to throw your ass out and-or outright ban you…
Video Poker can be gamed. You can run the numbers and usually beat the house. Casinos only care if they’re losing overall, and high-rollers encourage those less-studied to gamble more.
evidence?
Sure they would. Casinos play statistics. To them, a few million is a drop in the bucket, a form of advertising and, over a long enough time period the house will win it all back if the player continues to play video poker.
Professional gamblers, of which I know a few, will tell you that if you’re going to choose such a career there are only a few games to play because they’re the ones where you don’t play against the house. Anything where you play against the house will eventually leave you dead broke.
Robert DeNiro’s character in Casino nails this: No matter how big they are and no matter how much they win the rule is to keep them coming back. Sooner or later they’ll lose it all.
They boot and ban card counters and suspected card counters over much much smaller amounts, so the idea that they’re going to do nothing about someone win millions at video poker (by cheating) and just shrug it off is about as plausible as the all the conclusions Robert has drawn in his article based on the absence of evidence.
Card counters alter the odds. That’s what gets them banned, not the fact that they win.
Further, card counters generally play Blackjack (house edge ~1%) or poker (no house edge, they “cheat” other players).
Are you seriously going to sit there and tell me that if someone wins $20 million on a progressive slot that the house is going to ban them?
Pardon my ignorance (in all things) but. . .
Don’t believe you can count cards on video poker.
Isn’t it just an infinity-deck you’re playing from???
Card counting with the aid of a mechanical device by yourself is legal. They get banned for winning and costing the casinos money.
To your second question strych9, they just immediately sequester the machine, have their forensic experts look at it and then determine the payout was in error and give you nothing. This has happened numerous times. That’s not to say they do it every time, but it does happen. Ultimately, if you happen to win big at anything they want you to keep playing so you’ll lose your winnings back to them. In the case of card counting that’s not likely to happen which is why they boot and ban those people.
Joe R. I don’t know either, but I wouldn’t trust that they’re programmed to play fair even if they were theoretically playing from a limited number of decks.
I meant without the aid of a mechanical device above…
Vegas casinos don’t care if you count cards. So few people do that it doesn’t make a noticeable dent in their income. Two examples from blackjack where betting tactics based on card counting do help:
I watched a tourist consult a printed strategy before each bet. The dealer encouraged him. (He didn’t win.)
Forty years ago, I knew a well paid mechanical engineer who made two or three trips a year to Vegas. His goal for each trip, which he accomplished consistently, was to make $2,000 over and above his expenses. He did this often enough that casino employees recognized him. He wasn’t banned.
It’s not so much “let”, it’s that it is statistically impossible over a long period of time to make money playing video poker.
Ah, statistics. The reduction of a large data set to a few numbers.
In this case “the average player loses money.” That does NOT mean that every player has to have the “average” experience, just that averaged over ALL players, the house makes money.
The longer you play, the more likely you are to be average. He supposedly played for years. That’s long enough where staying on top by large margins is just not probable. Impossible, no, but incredibly unlikely.
He didn’t become a millionaire by gambling – he made all his money in real estate. Then he retired off of that money and became a professional gambler just to pass the time. There’s no evidence that he ever made much money gambling but he was already a millionaire from his real estate dealings.
True. You can’t really make a lot playing video poker. You can lose a lot if you don’t know what you are doing. You can break even or make a small profit and get lots of comp benefits doing it.
There is the theory that video poker, dumping his money in slowly and steadily, was his only way to induce casinos to comp him, and that getting comped was an enormous (and strange) ego trip for him. Perhaps he simply didn’t understand how to pick up a woman?
I haven’t seen any details at all of what his investments may have been, but if the media says thats how he got the money, it’s good enough for me.
The media has offered no proof the shooter made any money off his real estate transactions. The media only repeated what his distant Brother told them and did a cursory search of county government databases showing 27 transactions over the years, if I recall correctly.
I’m sure we’ll never get any real answers, but I heard he played poker online, which (I think) is a different animal than video poker. I also heard that he recently won $5 million doing it. Which sounds like a poker tourney held online instead of in person. True? I dunno.
” I also heard” and herein lies the problem . all the reports I have seen said he did video poker machines. that is not remotely possible doing that . no other people were involved. gambling is also a good cover for money laundering.
If he really was such a loner who had trouble relating to people or creating relationships the illusion of friends and popularity that came with being a high-roller gambler with the casino staff and other observers hanging on his elbows, watching, cheering, pretending to be his best friends (money will not buy happiness, but it will rent you a lot of “friends”) might have given him a temporary feeling that he had overcome this issue.
Disillusionment had to come at some point and he needed to stroke out, to prove he was superior to the people who rejected him.
BTW, if you have spent any amount of time watching FBI porn (Criminal Minds) then you would know that some of the “rules” of serial killers are that they develop a style that suits their psychological needs and then start out tentatively to establish a successful pattern. This successful technique is what gives them their initial success but eventually the repeated pattern is what will lead to their downfall when all those brilliant Fibbies finally figure out the pattern and where it leads (by following the trail of dead bodies). The thing is that they always talk about “hesitation marks” on the early “kills” as the pyscho develops his technique and becomes accustomed to and adept at it.
I would suggest that his original runs at this in Downtown Vegas and in Chicago were his “hesitation marks” as he practiced for the final event. They also gave him valuable practice in circumventing hotel security procedures and time to perfect his “murder kit”, the rifles, bump fires, devices to secure exit doors, the cameras in the hallway, etc. It will be interesting to see if more such incidents come to light in the future.
JMHO
Thank you.
Too bad all those other posters assume The Angry Little Man got this millions from gambling. They are the very targets of all those casinos.
“He was a gambler, that was his job,” … “He was a wealthy guy, playing video poker.”
Nobody gets rich playing VIDEO poker. Nobody. That monster was laundering money, and _that’s_ the key clue that needs to be pursued. Who was he working for?
Not buying it… The guy was rich enough to afford _real_ machine guns and _more_… I’ll wait for the official report after the next Congressional election :p
I thought that at first, but it makes sense if you assume he didn’t want to wait a year to do the attack for what ever reason. Assuming he hadnt spent years thinking about doing something like this.
” ASSUMING NO COVER-UP ” …… WTF , stopped reading there. There are plenty of facts , begging plenty of unanswered questions , that no TIN – FOIL is needed on this absolute CLUSTER !
Gun Running ? , F & F deal gone bad ? , FBI – MOB informant in Vegas goes sideways ….. pick one.
I’ve pretty much come to the same conclusion. Some information would have leaked out by now. As has been discussed here before, the withholding of information and shifting timeline make things look suspicious. But it’s most likely a lot of CYA by local law enforcement and the Mandalay Bay. The lawsuits have already started, and are going to knock a big chunk out of profits.
The human psyche requires an answer to the why of a disaster. As a people, we are simply unable to accept the fact that pure evil exists, and evil people do things simply for the sake of evil. Evil is an inevitable and unfortunate result of free will.
*This*
Not all evil requires a complex nefarious plot.
I’ve got to agree with you as well. I was a little suspicious with the missing info but this seems like the most logical explanation.
I also think his recent large transactions at the casino were just a guy knowing he wouldn’t be around much longer to spend his money so why not try to get a thrill and do some high stakes gambling.
There is a lot of lawsuit money at stake and the casino and Sherriffs dept. don’t want to be made to look like they are incompetent. Even if they are
Jesus Campos said on Ellen Degeneres that he went to check a report for a blocked door, heard what he though was jack hammering, and then got shot after checking the door for Paddock’s room. That, if true, further clouds this time line with Paddock shooting before he shot Campos. Is Campos wrong? Is the Sherrif Department?
This is a very odd story with a less than clear set of facts given how much time has passed.
I was mistaken. Campos heard drilling, and then was shot. But there was probably no six minute gap between Campos being shoot and the shooting happening on the concert goers. Because then the building engineer heard jackhammering.
“Here’s What We Know”
Not certain about much, don’t know where you were able to draw such conclusive conclusions.
Someone (forgive my inability to provide the Post-er’s I.D., right now) had a great comment yesterday regarding the pictures of the crime scene, with the weapons’ barrels not melted into the furniture or carpeting.
Whole thing is a pile of crap.
Wheres the thousand or so empty casings why no melted carpet.No one needs that many guns just clips .Who puts up a do not disturb sign for days any hotel would send security after a day .the plot was to shoot the fuel tanks and burn thousands .why were the exits blocked at the venue .Why were there police reports of a second shooter. How about 2 complete different meals by room service .Bet the other shooter can awnser most of this I call bd
How about the cabbie video with definitely multiple points of origin for weapons sounds [one of which sounds like it’s coming from directly overhead (right from on top of the MB portico)]???
Still clearly echoes, Joe.
I got nothing for the room service thing, although Occam’s razor says he was just really hungry for his last meals.
I didn’t say there wasn’t ALSO echoes. That video’s audio sounds like a recording of multiple firearms being fired from multiple position. At the very least it sounds like it’s nearly at street level. Where the portico would have blocked the sound and set up its own echo, it sounds like it funneled it right under the portico. That’s not what would happen if there’s only gunfire from nearly 30 stories up.
He likely brought that many guns for the sake of helping “prove” the anti gunners arguments.
I don’t remember ever getting security sent to the room because of a want to not have people coming into the room where your important stuff is.
The exits were blocked in order to force people to go through the front where they will be searched for weapons. They also put cars at the gates to stop vehicle based terror attacks. The gates were opened when the panic and fleeing occurred, hence the need to fire 2 shots at Gate 6 and Gate 5. His plan was most definitely to get the crowd to run down Ali Baba Ln. and to the parking lot next to the tanks, hence his effort to acquire tracers and do calculations.
There was a lot of 911 calls of multiple shooters because thousands of people fled to neighboring buildings to hide. When a hundred people come running through a casino yelling there is a shooter it’s going to cause panic and calls for help as if it was happening at that location although it was actually happening 800m away. When people seen Route 91 victims with blood on them running all over the place, they are not going to assume it was at that venue blocks away. Human imagination can create all kinds of delusions when the prevailing fear is death.
If you are going to hide 2 cameras on a cart pointing at different locations, you want the cart to be big and you want a lot of plates to place the cameras under. Plus, a large cart gets in the way.
Attempts to buy tracers? First I’ve heard of this. I wondered why he didn’t use them. How hard are they to get? I used to buy them easily, but that was years ago.
Wheres the thousand or so empty casings why no melted carpet.
–There are many in the limited photos that have been released, and there’s no way to tell anything about the carpet from those pictures, plus 556 casings aren’t really all that hot, you can catch them in your hand, depending on ambient temperature.
No one needs that many guns just clips
–They’re not clips, they’re magazines. Why 23, who knows, 2-4, sure, set up one at each entry point, and maybe 1 extra at each, not like he didn’t have them, so better to have too many than too few I suppose.
Who puts up a do not disturb sign for days any hotel would send security after a day.
–Me, every time I stay at a hotel, for a few hundred nights a year. Never had security come once in, housekeeping occasionally either leaves you a voicemail or knocks and asks if you want towels, but never security traveling like that over 20 years.
the plot was to shoot the fuel tanks and burn thousands
–No one has said that’s the plot, two stray rounds don’t a plot make, and he’d know that Jet A is not very flammable.
why were the exits blocked at the venue,
–They weren’t
Why were there police reports of a second shooter.
–echoes, panic, eye witnesses are unreliable. All along the strip people claimed to have seen x and y, not a single shred of evidence, the cabbie video shows a reflection from an unbroken window that you can see if you go and look tonight.
How about 2 complete different meals by room service
–He was rich, and in a comped room. I know I’ve ordered multiple entrees before, maybe you want a burger and a taco, maybe you’re getting ready to murder a bunch of people and you think you’d rather not on an empty stomach.
Bet the other shooter can awnser most of this I call bd
–He probably could, if he existed, and was a he, but the he that’s dead, looks to be the only culprit.
TL:DR–Don’t write silly things.
Who puts up a do not disturb sign for days any hotel would send security after a day .
That part’s definitely not true. I travel several times a month on business, often with multi-day and even multi-week stays, and I’ve gone multiple days without a maid in my room when I wanted to. I doubt it would raise any eyebrows for at least three or four days, and I bet even then it wouldn’t raise much notice as long as you periodically told them through a cracked door “No thanks, not today please.” Never pushed no maid service longer than a long weekend, because I never had any reason to, but nice hotels like to remain extremely non-intrusive.
These guns throw most, if not all their empties forward.
What is on the carpet is likely the 200 plus that were fired at the door, and a few that may have bounced off of still some unbroken glass.
The rest went out the windows.
Bump stocks are notorious for jamming the gun, no wonder he brought so many.
Jam one up. toss it aside and grab another.
A little knowledge can be troublesome, and that is all he had, “a little”!
Proven in more than one way.
Everything is so messed up with this story, I’m not even sure he killed anyone.
The arms dealer for the government (Fast And Furious 2) seems more plausible as if he was actually selling guns to terror groups so the Fed’s could “see where they go.”
It’s been almost 3 weeks, what was on his computer? Where is the surveillance camera footage? Where is the girlfriend with multiple identities? What about the 2 Mexican girls in the crowd saying people were going to die?
Yeah, I’m typically on board with what RF posts, but this one I gotta disagree with.
Even though the guy is dead, I think everything needs to being with “allegedly”. Nobody saw him pull the trigger, there is no footage of him even wielding a rifle. The security guard who got shot could not identify him. So this entire article is all pure speculation.
“And there you have it. Like father, like son. Stephen Paddock was a psychopath.”
And that is just bad. Guilty by association, much? So if someone’s father is an alcoholic, it’s automatically, like father, like son?
I do not buy the stated story for one second. Just looking at the room photographs alone causes more questions than answers. And don’t even get started on all of the footage…and how much is disappearing before our eyes…
“Guilty by association, much? So if someone’s father is an alcoholic, it’s automatically, like father, like son?”
What the actual heck are you trying to say? His father was a psychopath and he killed 58 people. That’s not thought crime, it’s proof.
Did anyone witness Paddock actually firing the weapons? No.
We have a dead body in a room full of guns…we can make assumptions, come to conclusions.
Hence, my call to use the word “allegedly” liberally.
But to state, unequivocally that because his father was a bank robber and a criminal that now because his dead body is in a room full of guns that, welp, guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree…it’s just insulting to everyone’s intelligence.
Fair enough Punisher, and I take your point about “allegedly”. IMO it’s more insulting at this point – given what we DO know – to say or imply that he didn’t shoot and wasn’t crazy though.
So I guess we have to assume the brother is also going to commit mass murder or bank robbery or something? The father’s crimes and mental status are evidence of nothing.
Why no forensic evidence? Gunshot residue on shooter. Angle of bullets that impacted the ground. How about some video of him in the hotel. Can you really break one of those windows out with a hammer? Why not just shoot them out? Body looks staged and badly at that. Stop with the “it’s all echos” BS. There were many gaps in fire and when it resumes the gun sounds completely different. I see no actual evidence (not just that he was there) that this guy shot anyone. Time for the expert investigators to produce some empirical evidence.
You mean because THEY haven’t shared the forensic evidence with you, personally. But with all of the wet noodle head conspiracy nonsense, when THEY do personally come to your house and walk you through it, who’s to say that isn’t fake too.
So, in the interest of your sanity, you should go to college, learn all about the “science” stuff, then you can take the physical evidence and run your own tests. Oh wait, THEY could have faked that too.
So go back to college, learn all about the “physics” and “math” stuff. Then you can create a wormhole through time, go back and personally watch him commit the crime, then report back to us. Oh wait, THEY, are with ones who taught you the “science”, “physics”, and “math” stuff, so maybe your portal wasn’t actually a portal, but just a hypnotic memory that THEY wanted you to have.
So….you see what happens when you give the disembodied THEY infinite power. You can convince yourself of all kinds of foolishness, like there is a THEY, or that you know things. None of that is true though.
As a former slot machine tech at one of the largest, most successful casinos in the world, I can with authority, state that nobody is making a living at playing slot machines. It’ a pastime. Nothing more. All the comps do is relieve some of the sting of loosing. There is nothing magical about slot machines. They are programmed to return most of the money that goes through them to the player as winnings and the house keeps a small amount. Over and over again. If you play long enough, they get it all. There is nothing diabolical or sneaky. And there is no such thing as a professional slot player.
He was playing video poker. And if you pick the right machines, with the right promotions, you can find payouts slightly above 100% (most have payouts in the 90% range). But that assumes you know your odds down cold, are a disciplined player, etc.
So it is possible he was that, but that does not translate in making a living (certainly not a high roller living). That translates in spending time on a video machine for hours, for comps and a small payout.
I guess he could have been laundering money, but video poker seems an odd way to do that.
Maybe the tech can chime in, but if I recall correctly, the software is programmed to take 1.5% for the house, and the odds are adjusted accordingly. At times, it may seem like you are a big winner, but if you play long enough, you will lose your money. It is worth noting that the algorithms are so random, it would be impossible to predict when the odds will be better or worse. For example, just because you spent X hours losing does not mean the machine will suddenly start paying. But, for the sake of the Las Vegas economy, please, continue to believe that there is a way to beat the machines.
I have heard that there are ways to make money on the machines. People travel around Nevada finding the best machines at the time and bet accordingly. When the machine stops giving you a nice run you find another place. So you end up playing all over Nevada, even the crappy places you don’t want to be at. It’s a hustle to rely on non skill based gambling, which is why people prefer to go with Poker (be it machine, online or in person).
If you’re rich, a high roller, his VP probably isn’t the point. You can play to break even or only lose a bit, and play for the comps. Pretty typical actually for high rollers.
The house take varies from machine to machine. With the possible exception of special cases, like promotional tournaments, there are no slot machines programmed to pay more than they take in. Even though most casinos are getting away from coins, a coin machine is a good example. You walk up to a machine with a coin bucket. Say the coin bucket has a hundred dollars in it. Play the entire bucket. At the end you have maybe eighty-five dollars in the coin tray. So now take a few thousand people and do that again and again. Eventually everybody’s money ends up in the machine. Yeah some people will win. A few will win big. But eventually all the money ends up in the machines. For every person that walks away with a thousand dollars, twelve had to loose a hundred. It’s all about the numbers, they don’t have to cheat the players. They just keep a percentage of what goes through the game. Over and over again. If you enter a casino with a bag of money, no matter how much, and play long enough, they will get it all. It doesn’t matter if you are playing video poker or a reel machine. The machine doesn’t even know it is playing poker. They are digital. It is all just ones and zeroes to them.
Great… now all of us who DIDN’T shoot anyone at all will be watched, prosecuted, whatever if we also like our privacy and don’t play kissy poo with the neighbors…
Such purely speculative “analysis” is counter productive. Too many questions with no clear (or none at all) answers. Nobody knows for sure why this attack happened, or who actually was responsible. Dead men tell no tales… So it may never be known.
And I still don’t buy that Paddock shot himself…
No Soul No God Hates Joy love never felt nothing but CASH
This article are conclusions not actual facts.
Lets wait for the DOJ to take over the investigation and expose the facts.
I don’t think the DOJ will provide the answers, given that they may be inclined to cover for law enforcement failings. I reckon we’ll have a clearer picture of what happened in a civil case. Only . . . that’s years away AND I’d bet dollars to donuts MGM will settle before a trial starts.
Not a good bet … Have you priced donuts lately?
MGM has several ways of getting the case dismissed in its favor long prior to trial, and I have to assume that its lawyers will aggressively employ such tactics, specifically focusing on the absence of duty of care to people a quarter mile away. The hotel certainly had no right–much less any duty–to search the luggage of one of its guests for “contraband.” There is, at this point, no evidence suggesting that the hotel “knew or should have known” that one of its guests was a psychopath intending to commit mass murder. Moreover, it is difficult if not impossible to impose liability when there has been an intervening intentional wrong, which certainly exists in this case. I personally do not see this as a case of liability against the hotel. I doubt any competent plaintiff’s lawyer does either; their sole focus will be to do whatever it takes to get the case in front of a jury, where they can expect a large degree of sympathy, which often results in awards of damages.
Most lawyers don’t want to go to court. They want to get a settlement. It’s easy money and it’s quick. If they want a massive settlement they will make the rounds to corporate media.
Its cute that you think the DOJ will investigate better than anyone else.
Gee and here I thought he was a classic case of demon possession. Pure evil…I guess the gubmint doesn’t have an evil test yet. Has ANYONE (with credibility) figured out his political leanings yet?!? Mr. Jesus Campos further muddies the water…
Well, the room service folks should have smelled the sulfur and creosote, plus if he wasn’t wearing a hat, you could clearly see his little pointy horns.
So, mandatory benedryl for house staff, and we have to sue all the hat makers, you know for kids.
This reporter needs to be fired. False narrative
Why did he go to all the effort (and risk of detection) to shlep 23 firearms to his room? Why only 12 with bump fire stocks? Did he shoot all of these firearms during his rampage?
Did he run out of pre loaded magazines?
Still a lot of questions.
If Paddock suffered from OCD, there’s your answer. As for “only” 12, that’s a lot more than one, two or three.
You’re merely running with more speculation…who said anything about the guy having OCD?
I think you need to go back and re-edit this story and put quite a few “allegedly” ‘s in there.
What we do have is a dead guy and some guns. People outside shot and murdered. Correlation does not equal causation. Nobody saw this actual guy pull the trigger and there’s no footage of him firing any weapon…in fact there’s not even any footage of muzzle flashes coming from the 32nd floor.
We have few real answers here. That’s why everyone wants their burning questions answered truthfully. Because there’s so many and no hard facts being given. No real investigation going on.
Some of the photos show large neat stacks of 100-round magazines. One would assume they were all preloaded and hadn’t been used yet (why stack them precisely when you’re done with them, and why have them there if they’re not pre-loaded?). So I don’t think, from what I saw, that he ran out of ammo.
I do not generally subscribe to conspiracy theories, but…..in order to accept Mr. Farago’s explanation one has to subscribe to two “facts.” First, that the Mandalay murderer was a neophyte virtuoso at the art of long-range killing. Second, that Las Vegas law enforcement and the lead FBI careerists are virtuoso nincompoops. I find the second finding more plausible than the first. But both are pretty implausible.
First, the murderer scouted multiple kill zones, chose an optimal position for his task at the selected kill zone, planned his operation over a fairly lengthy period, infiltrated that position with multiple weapons while remaining undetected, and executed his plan to high effect. He did all of this with no apparent training in the art of rifle-shooting. He apparently managed to keep all planning and preparation hidden. And, he eats a bullet before law enforcement arrives. Neat.
Second, Las Vegas law enforcement bungles their fast reaction. Then, Las Vegas law enforcement bungles the most basic element of crime investigation, establishing the timeline. Then, Las Vegas law enforcement and the FBI bungle the timeline, again. Then, the FBI fails to secure a key, crime-scene location, namely the murderer’s home, and that crime scene location is entered illicitly. Then, a key witness “disappears” suddenly from a post-shooting meeting involving his union reps and then, “re-appears” on the Ellen DeGeneres show of all places. Amazing.
I have no idea what the whole truth is behind the Mandalay murders. I doubt that I will ever know. And, I am not disposed to speculate about things I may never be able to know. However, I am not inclined to accept what I am being told, either. That is unfortunate.
“First, that the Mandalay murderer was a neophyte virtuoso at the art of long-range killing.”
I think it’s well established that he could have done a lot more harm if he’d really known what he was doing. So I don’t think this is a fact that’s in evidence at all.
“Second, that Las Vegas law enforcement and the lead FBI careerists are virtuoso nincompoops”
Could be corruption too, it’s Vegas after all. Either way, quite plausible.
Yep, much too amateurish to be a “false flag” or any kind of set up!
Who goes to that much trouble, yet bobble it so badly that any one other than ISIS is going to even WANT to claim it?
ISIS, who is on the ropes, thanks to finally a president that sees the hand writing on the wall and wants to save the country.
Now, there is a scary thought!
It just might have been Obama himself that set up the debacle!
About his speed as far as planning and execution goes!
Thank God it was someone dumb, in the ways of guns, etc!
Geez Louise. Truth is that we will not know anything substantive for months, and even then, it will take a few Freedom of Information Act related lawsuits to get at the details. What I do know from one of the press briefings is that this murdering SOB got serious about his preparations in the final weeks of October 2016. Something set him off then. Hmm, I wonder what that was. 😉
Where are you getting solid information?
I am afraid you are making some massive assumptions with little soild information.
Hell, i dont think any of the information we have heard is solid.
They change the story daily.
And he may have had guns…but he wasnt a gun guy.
There is still no definitive proof that Paddock was the shooter, along with numerous reports of additional shooters and multiple weapons with apparent varying cyclic rates.
There may be definitive proof which we have not been told, otherwise you are correct. For example, were all doors to the suite deadbolted from the inside when broken down? If so, then he was the shooter (or one of them) unless someone jumped out the damn window afterwards. Was he tested for powder residue (should have been covered) to see if he’d even fired a gun recently? Many questions, I don’t think we will ever hear any answers.
Nah!
I just ‘splained that above!
If there had been more shooters, (even as dumb as he was as well), there would have been many more deaths!
That was like fish in a barrel!
Without the bump stocks, (which were a detriment to what he was trying to do), there SHOULD have been at least as many dead as there were bullets fired! Literal kindergärtner as to what he “thought” he was doing! Thank God!
” Assuming the police aren’t covering up evidence pointing to any of the motivations listed above …” and on this rests the entire discussion. I would add , or the police aren’t mistaken about any of their assumptions. those are some important assumptions.
Psychopaths are not murders. Some murders are psychopaths. Not being emotional doesn’t mean you don’t know what is wrong and what is right; nor does it mean you will be drawn to do something you know is wrong. There are a bunch of psychopaths in the US military; they kill the “enemy,” come home like nothing ever happened and live a peaceful life.
If he was OCD he would have trained for the event like a Navy SEAL would. He would have been at the range all the time like a professional shooter. He would have setup the floor plan in the desert and drilled it all day. He would have learned how to hit his target at long range without relying on internet numbers. He wouldn’t have used bump fire stocks on every gun he picked up; he might not even think of using such inaccurate things in the first place because the OCD will make you want to land every bullet at every target the first time. He would have put the same optics on all of his guns. He wouldn’t be able to allow himself to gamble for days at the hotel whilst leaving the explosives in the car not prepared for the event. If he was OCD and set his mind to kill humans, he wouldn’t have focused on the people at the Route 91 venue when he had many chances to kill offered to him — if you are going for numbers, you want to go for a perfect score, you are not going to stop until forced to. Why even do a one time attack when you can murder many people throughout your remaining life time and not get caught? If he was a psychopath, OCD, serial killer, maybe he would have rather spent his life trying to outdo the Zodiac Killer or John Muhammad.
I still think he had a demon.
This is such a setup and a lot of people aren’t seeing. Are you people crazy. Did you hear at least 2 different gunshots. I did!!! This has a professional job written all over it.
Professional job?
You HAVE to be kidding!
It was a kindergartner type job!
Killed 58, wounded 468 or so?
Fired approx 1000 rounds.
A professional would have had one dead, some actually multiples and numerous wounded for every round!
And would have used NO bump stocks!
That, right there, shows just how “unprofessional” he was!
Or whoever else the idiots want to dream up, that supposedly did it in his stead!
if it looks like a duck walks like a duck quacks like a duck…
ok lets engage our basic reasoning skills here
unlike any previous mass shooting this one has all the things in it that gun grabbers hate and want banned:
bump fire stocks semi auto rifles high capacity magazines dozens of weapons thousands of rounds of ammo AND it just so happened at time in which there are rumblings that trump might be able to put 2 more justices on the scotus to replace kennedy and ginsburg
is it just a coincidence that this same exact shooting also happens to be the first one that made this little sense almost 3 weeks afterward and timelines are constantly changing and people directly involved are disappearing for days and dying of natural causes right before they want to go public and on and on and on
could it be a coincidence…debatable…but i think not
but whats NOT up for debate is that we ABSOLUTELY CANNOT BELIEVE the fbi and theyre running the show on this and im not going to even go into it because it would be like arguing that the sun rises in the east everyday its a waste of everybodys time everybody already knows it
“government is not reason it is not eloquence it is force like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action”
those individuals highly skeptical of this whole thing and in the absence of hard evidence not willing to just chalk it up to the workings of a madman especially knowing what we know about our current government even if ultimately proven wrong are right here right now the more wise and cautious and prudent ones
and im not just saying that because thats my take on it
in the unlikely event it comes out one day that he was just a madman i will admit i was wrong
but it doesnt change the fact that if we truly value the 2nd amendment which is constantly under attack like all our other freedoms being the worlds biggest ever doubting thomases in situations like this is not very often the wrong way to be
Don’t worry… Alex Jones will cover up for any federal government issues that could make Trump look bad. His audience will soak it up.
“Lets engage our critical thinking here, unlike any previous mass shooting this one has all the things in it that gun grabbers hate and want banned:”
Guns just like any other mass SHOOTING.
Gun grabbers probably wouldn’t be bitching about a plane crash. Do you not get GUN+SHOOTING=BAN GUNS, all the rest is BS. You don’t have to jump through 30 hoops, neither do they. You make rational 2A folks look stupid, if you believe that conspiracy crap, I’m not sure we shouldn’t ban YOUR guns.
More or less gun control would have zero impact on this turd, he was literally the model gun owner, til he wasn’t. If you ban guns, this guy could rent a truck, rent a plane, both would probably had more fatalities. Jesus, sometimes I hate our side, some folks brains are more like grape jelly. I’d rather people blab about it being ISIS than some Hillary/Bloomberg master plan. If they were that competent, she wouldn’t have fucking lost, throwing all of this extra superpower skills at the anti’s just chaffs my ass.
Jeez, I agree, but take it down a notch.
Nobody thinks it is odd that he has no social media presence? No Facebook, forum postings, nothing?
Nope.
An old white man with no kids, no wife, practically no friends, etc, will more likely not be on the internet like the trendies are. If he was, there is no reason for him to put out all his personal info — the US doesn’t (yet) have a system like China.
If he was 44, maybe, but 64 and not a tech guy, not a big deal. I’m 48 and literally have one of the first 100 public twitter accounts, and one of the first 1000 facebook accounts, and I haven’t looked at twitter in years, and facebook maybe 3 times a year. And I’m a software guy, in tech, so social media profiles in that age group aren’t a big deal, heck my inlaws don’t have a PC, or smartphone, or cable, or dvr. I don’t know how they survive, but they don’t seem to mind.
But how do we know that? If he stayed off platforms that use his real name there’s no way for us to know whether he had an online presence? For all we know he could have been an avid poster on some AR related forums.
We’ll not know probably, anonymous posting, like I’m Rick but I have a last name, but if he had a computer, which he apparently had, you’ll be able to find various cookies trackers etc, plus google/bing, ISP, all keep records, so by this point the feds would easily have that info, they may never tell us though.
Unless he’s actually quite technically competent, not getting tracked would be near impossible on any public connection. You can run TOR, secure flash based OS’s, but at the end of the day, that makes using a PC a nightmare, and you still connect through a provider, even if you piggyback off your neighbor. Plus, the simple fact that he had a pristine NIST wiped computer would also tell a story. If wipe and destroy all of my drives when I get rid of them, not because I’m a spy, but I don’t want someone to see my…..youporn, I mean youtube history, even if no one would care.
I’d bet he was active on the boards and youtube, maybe not as a commenter, but as a consumer.
Pro video poker play is about finding the machines with the best payouts. Using proper strategy you can achieve positive expectation. Theres books on it( bob dancer wrote some), it basically about going for royal flushes. He would have many losing sessions, losing 10k on avg for 10 or 20 times in a row until he has a winning one and ‘wins’ 300 to 500k. Now remember hes playing at 30 or more casinoes. So most casinoes would want his action cause on average hes gonna lose, bjt over the long run you can beat video poker, but its a boring ass grind.
If all your life is sitting at a video poker machine….man vegas gets old after 4 days imagine spending 20 years grinding it out there. I think he was done with life and he might as well take it out on vegas on the way out. Im sure there were times when the house kicked him off a machine. Or told him they no loger wanted his action, or didnt comp him what he wanted. Thats the most plausible reason, a man disconnected from the world angry at vegas, most professional gamblers feel that way from time to time. Add his wonderful genetics and bingo.
The only conspiracy is the vegas cops and the casinoes hiding all the evidence that he was just a fed up gambler and he wanted to punish the strip on his way out. And maybe they should. Maybe the nedia covers mass shootings too much and it begats future shootings….
Now, if he proclaimed to be a gun control activist before this, this shooting would be all for nothing.
I still don’t believe HPA and SHARE acts were bombed just because of coincidence.
He did it because he was a crazy evil asshole. And when a crazy evil asshole wants to do something, they will.
Why is a stupid question. No will ever know why. All we will ever get is the conjecture of so-called experts and the uneducated media. Why changes nothing. Solves nothing. Every nut case has their reasons for committing crime. It only has to be justified in their minds. The failure is in ourselves for not being prepared. Most people think they live in Utopia and walk around with their heads in the clouds. The world is a dangerous place and humans are the most vicious members of the animal kingdom. If you don’t look out for yourself. No one else can or will. Not the government. Not the police. Wake up or you could be next.
Since this is a website about guns, I am wondering if someone here can explain why numerous people described the strong smell of gunpowder from a gun that was fired from 1/3 of a mile away, high up in a building. Right after the shootings, I found lots of statements from people who smelled it. Does this make sense?
I’ve only been a sports shooter, so no gunfight experience for me.
But no, i’ve never smelled anything until i’m actually at or very near the firing line.
To answer this question you need somebody who has been within 1/3 of a mile from a machinegun port, yet neither he nor anyone around him fired their weapons. I dunno where to find such a guy.
So?
Apparently he had the wind to his back!
First real “thinking man’s” scenario he had here!
Everything else has been kindergarten level!
Wind, buildings, etc can also make the uninformed believe that there were multiple shooters, (which there were not, due to lack of victims!)
Norm, he took all those guns because those bump stocks and shooters not VERY well versed in them, tend to jam a lot. Dump it and grab another was his plan. (But someone well versed in ARs, would never, ever have used bump stocks in the first place!) They were actually a determent to what he wanted to accomplish in the first place!
Thank God, that he really didn’t know what he was doing!
Everyone says anyone that does some heinous act is mentally ill as the pat answer… with the rise of leftest political violence (BLM & Antifa) and political martyrdom (James Hodgkinson at the Republican Baseball practice field)… One has to wonder if this is not just another violent expression of the far left to drive their agenda. As of now, there is no reason why, just alot of fumbling idiots that can’t get 101 investigation done… Much the same way the endless Russia, Russia, Russia investigation and the ever drip, drip, drip of the Comey pay for play bag job, one has to wonder if this was something the professional government type don’t want to see the light of day… As it might expose a political state looking to over turn an election without the worry of armed opposition….
Hmmm, maybe that’s why the founders codified the 2nd in the bill of rights and its been on the hit list of the left since their rise to power out of the Great Depression?
Sorry I’m late to the discussion and I know this will be buried in the other replies. Out of every article I’ve read, I agree with this one the most. It’s occam’s razor: The simplest explanation. He wasn’t a complex guy with an axe to grind, he just got bored and needed something to do. Gambling addiction is a serious problem and it can really mess you up. I think it was last month, but I was reading stories on reddit from casino dealers and I couldn’t believe half of them. It really brings out the inhumanity of some people. This doesn’t mean I think gambling was the reason why he did it, he’s been doing it for 30 years now and it’s fair to say he was pretty good at it.
I think the monotony got to him. It can happen to anybody.
I get getting bored after a while, but jeez that was a big step from being a sort of wallflower to mass murder. How much satisfaction could he get, he offed himself 20 minutes after he started, was the planning the fun part?
“There’s no evidence linking the Islamic terrorist organization to the 64-year-old Silver State killer”
Nope, sorry, that’s wrong. ISIS’ claim is evidence per se.
What you meant to write is that there’s no other evidence, which seems like a true statement — but then again, who’s looking? Nobody want this disaster to be ISIS inspired, so it isn’t. Even if it was. And why do I think that it’s only a matter of time before somebody blames it on the Jews?
You’re joking, right?
Nice little package all wrapped up by…. CNN.
I suppose it could be factual… but… it’s CNN as the source…. that colors the data… the profiling of him… it also can be used to support him being used by someone that managed to get close enough. We still don’t have all the data.
He wasn’t “used”, by ISIS or anyone else!
“THEY”, (whoever they might have been), wouldn’t have let him go off “half cocked” like he did!
“They” would have given him enough training, help, and the “right equipment” to do a lot more damage than he did!
He figured this out all by his little lonesome, kindergarten type self!
Because I had a friend much like this shooter (intelligent, very competent, very much a loner who “got” social contact when and where he wanted to, didn’t care one bit about a friendship or romantic partner if he found a reason that friendship or romantic partner didn’t “fit” with his worldview, viewed “some people” to be “not human” and of “another species”) – I fully agree with this assessment of this shooter. I don’t believe the guy I knew would do this kind of thing but I am just as sure that, like this shooter, he could “change overnight” and find that as a purpose and “personal project” he wanted to show he could excel at. We can’t believe what this shooter did: so that’s probably why I can’t believe the same about the guy I knew.
There is nothing anyone can do about these people. Outlawing gun parts is laughably stupid. Outlawing bump-fire stocks would not have stopped this shooter or that guy I used to know.
. What stands out is the “culture” which dismisses the one thing that can stop shooters like this one and all others: do not let anyone carry their guns past a check-in lockup station. If you have a safe hotel, it means you do not need to have your gun with you. The hotels provide all kinds of service for comfort, privacy and convenience so providing for the safety of guests and the public fits right in. It’s ether be appreciated for your provision of safety or pay the price for their cold negligence about that safety.
We can be like this shooter and “defend” privacy so that killers are allowed all the time and privacy they need OR we can demand responsibility all around. Proving their irresponsibility gets people killed and gets laws like the bump-fire ban passed isn’t what anyone calls “smart.”
“do not let anyone carry their guns past a check-in lockup station. If you have a safe hotel, it means you do not need to have your gun with you.”
I don’t know what you’re trying to say here. I travel to Las Vegas a lot. I always bring a couple of guns. I had an Nevada CCW, and Nevada now recognizes my MA LTC.
Is the hotel safe? Dunno. But I do know that I don’t spend 24/7 inside the hotel. When I leave the hotel, I carry a gun or two with me.
If I can’t bring my guns to Las Vegas, I’m not going there. Period.
I’ve done hotel security. Good luck with that. The most secure hotel in the world can’t stop your guest from trying to kill you with a steak knife. Heck prisons are pretty secure yet prisoners, and guards, get killed there.
So complicated, so sinister, HAH
50 YEARS after the JFK assassination, people and the media are still “speculating.” If millions of monkeys are still claiming “conspiracy” after 50 years of chatter: that tells us what that all means. Monkeys are really bad at figuring simple things out.
Ban gun parts, never say “no” to high rollers carrying guns into their room: very very smart. LOL LOL. LOL
“The right to have a great place to shoot people from shall not be infringed!” LOL LOL LOL. Have someone who can read check it for you again. It doesn’t say what you believe it says.
I just want to say thank you for writing this. Sadly, I believe you are correct. Psychopathy is the most likely “reason.” It is also a motive that is very difficult to accept. I believe the police and FBI are hesitant to confirm it because it doesn’t offer a comfortable closure for anyone. And yet, there it is. 58 people are dead because of someone’s haywire hardwiring. It’s terrifying that it can be that simple. The powers that be know that most people would rather believe a concocted story with more plot depth, but the truth is he was psychotic and that’s all there is to tell.
I want to know how not a single image from the casino has been leaked from any of the thousands of video cameras and hours of footage of him lugging in cases, checking in, looking at his watch, standing by the elevator, tipping the maître d’..
not. one. image.
yet crime scene photos with his head squirting like a broken ketchup bottle were leaked.
Yeah, I’ve wondered why the dots haven’t been connected by the police.
My observation exactly. If they wanted to mollify us, they would have soon released video of him, alone, hauling heavy luggage to his room. I’ve heard Vegas casinos are loaded with cameras.
I don’t understand why he took so many guns with him. Did he mean to empty one, and then use another? That’s odd.
Oh, hi Norm!
I explained above, bump stocks were an actual detriment here, they tend to jam, especially when used by amateurs.
He was smart enough to know that they jammed, just toss it and grab another.
But not smart enough to know that he could have done a much more damaging job using just simple semi auto fire.
Thank God! And a lot of folks that did survive should really be doing that! It’s why numerous of them are still alive.
All he was doing was “spraying” towards dense groups of people.
I don’t agree. Clearing a jam in an AR 15 is quite simple, and would be just as fast as grabbing another one. If you were walking into an area armed with pistols, I could understand carrying a bunch and just dropping them and grabbing another, (though that seems rather Hollywood) but having a dozen rifles (?) looks more than amateurish.
Norm, rapidly firing several hundred (thousand) rounds quickly makes barrels and everything around them VERY hot – they can “melt” or become damaged. I suspect he knew this – he brought multiple rifles because he couldn’t change barrels.
Yes, I’m aware that firing rapidly heats up guns and can cause catastrophic failures. However, shooting one 60 or 100 round magazine with a bump stock would not have heated the barrel or gas tube enough to cause malfunction. He could have cycled between 3 or 4 guns and kept up near constant fire. That’s my point.
Well I guess that’s a wrap everyone! Expert P.I. Robert Farago knows exactly what happened. We can now ignore all the inconsistencies and witness testimonies that contradict the official narrative. Back to sleep we go.
Robert, you have the right to your opinion. Please refrain from presenting it as if it were fact.
Based upon his known history, he is more likely a sociopath – I doubt he would have made it as long as he did with no criminal history if he were a psychopath. The simple fact that he sent the girlfriend $100,000 indicates this – the psychopath would not have done it. Meh, apples and apples, they’re both wackadoodle. Doubt we’ll ever know exactly why he did this but we do know he never expected to survive it.
I haven’t seen anyone really mention the fact that a audio forensics lab has already determined he wasn’t the only shooter.
Basically Paddock was an asshole. I’m glad he is dead I wish he’d killed himself first.
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