CNN is now reporting that at least 50 people have died at a Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas, Nevada last night, and over 200 people have been injured. The shooting took place at an outdoor concert when an individual opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, which overlooked the music venue. You can here the first bursts of fire in this video:

https://youtu.be/SWjGl7JvXco

According to police the suspect has been identified as 64 year old Stephen Paddock. Reports from the local police indicate that the perpetrator had “multiple rifles” in their room but no specific information has been distributed about the type of firearm used or whether they were legally owned. Fox News is reporting live on air that eight rifles were found, along with two shooting platforms and cameras, however there is no confirmation of that information at this time. At this time the police have stated that the suspect is dead, and they are executing search warrants against his hotel room and other locations to find more information.

“Experts” on CNN are stating that the firearms used are definitely fully automatic firearms, and while the rate of fire recorded on video supports that conclusion the police still have not determined whether that is true. As always, the “facts” in these situations tend to change drastically over time. Stay tuned.

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86 COMMENTS

  1. Terrifying and awful. Glad this POS is dead. No HPA or reciprocity for us now. Back on the defensive, as always.

    • “No HPA or reciprocity for us now. Back on the defensive, as always.” If I were a tinfoil hat wearing type, I’d feel like it’s more than a coincidence.

      • Here we go another mass shooting for the anti gun establishment to hold up as a sacrifice for their cause. And a new round of firearms ban proposals. Even though that was clearly illegal automatic weapons fire, they will hold it up as the evil of all guns.

    • F’ing lazy azz Republican congress critters that sit on their butts instead of passing bills that got them into office.

      They’re too busy working with the Democrats to legalize millions of illegals.

    • It was a country music festival. Could have been another leftist wanting to kill some “fascists”. If that was the case the media will never tell us.

      • My money is on another Bernie supporter who spent too much time listening to the resistance rhetoric.

  5. Is it just me, or is there something odd about the sound of those bursts? It’s like the cyclic is unstable, speeding up and slowing down, like it’s hand-cranked.

  6. “Experts on CNN are stating that the firearms used are 100% definitely fully automatic firearms, …..”

    Besides the obvious with this statement, (nothing about CNN is expert) I listened to a youtube clip of the gunfire. At the start it appears to sound automatic, but it slows down very slightly toward the end. I’m not sure if this is my PC, the sound recorded, direction of the device recording, or what, but toward the end the sound is different.

    Could it be a bump-fire or other device and maybe a 60rd AR mag or a 100rd drum?

    Wait and see I guess. Sad day.

    • If it was a bump-fire stock, prepare to kiss those goodbye. The ATF WILL ban them after this. And don’t be shocked to see an AWB pop up again too–and if it does, THIS TIME they’ll probably get it.

      • I wouldn’t be surprised to see bump fire move to NFA, but they have nowhere near the votes they need for AWB. There are still plenty of Democrats against that.

      • No, they definitely will *not* get it. Not with this congress, not with this president, not a chance.

    • Also, the spam filters are going absolutely nuts. I’ve been trying to post that the weapon sounds like an old-school Gatling, not quite sure what exact word has been setting off the filters.

    • Noticed that. Is speeds up and slows down slightly. I was thinking of the old Hellfire, I think it was, crank that was clamped onto the trigger guard

    • Definitely not just you. First burst sounded full-auto, but subsequent bursts rose and fell like a bump-fire or BFS/Echo trigger.

    • The cyclic speeds up and slows down, I don’t know how you’d achieve that with either a bumpfire stock or commercial full-auto.

    • The cyclic gets faster and slower, I don’t know how you’d achieve that with a bumpfire stock – or with a commercial full-auto.

    • Maybe one of those idiotic auto-gloves with a binary trigger. Or, maybe it was just Jerry Miculek.

    • That’s what I was thinking. It’s not regulated as full auto, but if that’s what it ends up being you can expect the gun control side to exploit it immediately. I don’t see the them having trouble getting to 60 in the Senate either.

      I suspect we’ll see slidefire going to NFA at the least.

  10. As others are noticing…. The moment the SHARE act is up for a real vote this happens.

    It is all by design. The left uses every weapon available to them to further their goals, and nothing is beneath them.

    • I either find it hard to believe or distressing to believe that a “regular” American could be convinced to engage in a potential suicide attack against a group of innocents to attempt to attain a political goal.

      While this works in novels, I would be quite unsettled if this was the case here.

      • Why does it surprise you? It has happened many so many times before. “Regular” Americans, can be a rather dangerous bunch. More than “plus” or “premium” octane Americans…….

      • Well, prepare to be unsettled. No offense, but you may be grossly underestimating the will of the powerful. To the ruling class, nothing is off the table when it comes to gaining control.

      • Well, prepare to be unsettled. No offense, but you may be grossly underestimating the will of the powerful. To the ruling class, nothing is off the table when it comes to gaining control, especially when peaceable attempts have failed repeatedly.

  11. It would be very interesting to see some real facts about all this – you know, things that at least appear to be real instead of spin.

    Just for starters, I’d like to know how the police discovered the shooter so quickly, how he was identified so fast, and how he died. They kill him or did he off himself? And now that he’s dead (if the dead man did indeed do the shooting, of course) the speculation and manipulation of it all can begin.

    Lots of other interesting questions, but those will do for now.

    • According to a local source on CBS, the hotel room’s smoke detector went off, and pinpointed the room. Hotel security in Vegas coordinates closely with Vegas metro PD, so the responders are probably familiar with the layout of the various hotels, and were able to get there more quickly than if they’d gone in blind.

  12. Just awful news. Don’t expect the SHARE act to pass or that we will ever see national wide CCW. If anything things will get worse for our side.

  13. Well, If you want a binary style trigger, or bump stock now is the time to get them before they are banned.

  14. I can’t believe 50 Americans were murdered and your first convoluted thoughts are it was a leftist conspiracy to stop a gun bill. It’s like your reading an infowars story that isn’t up yet.

    • It’s probably not a conspiracy, but we’re traumatized by decades of guilt by association. The leftists say if one person craps their pants we all must get rid of our rights and wear diapers. Also, the HPA act was last stopped by a violent Leftist shooting Congressmen. Now this, at a country music festival, I’m wondering if it was another leftist out to kill some “fascist” Trump supporters.

    • That’s how conspiracy theorists work. One starts with leading suspicions or cryptic questions, another fires off a series of assumptions and coincidences, and before you know it there’s a feedback loop that turns into that Infowars article. The period before all the facts are known, and the various media agencies are rushing to post any tidbit they can is like a festering wound for conspiracy theorists to infect.

      • …what? You’ve got a short memory. The vast majority have no religious or political motive or affiliation. It’s almost always a deeply angry, hateful person taking his failures out on the innocent. Sandy Hook, VA Tech, Aurora, etc.

  15. Weep for the Victims. 🙁 However, just be glad the Dems are not in control. We would be losing ‘Assault Weapons.’ 🙁 As it is the share act is dead or if we are lucky it is going to be put on ice for a while at the very least.

  16. So, we’re back to this again…We’ve had spy on the American people, surveillance, and “other ” events caused by our Intelligence agency…Seams awful coincidental that something like this happens…Probably by another mysterious “Lee Harvey Oswald ” type that suddenly popped up out of the wood work….I’m wondering if the ” Deep State ” is at it again… Trying to continue undermining the 2nd amendment….Drumming–up more prohibitions, restrictions, bans, etc…Always something to break down our US Constitutional-Bill of Rights…Since there’s no better way that ” guilt by association.” At least to the Liberal Pro-aggressive mind….

  17. Fox News reporting that police stated that there were 8 rifles in the room with two shooting platforms set up. Along with cameras so he could see the police coming.

  19. “Paddock was known to local law enforcement and had a criminal past, investigators said, but no additional details were available.”

    Not much of a surprise there…I suspect we’ll find out he was a prohibited person. Prayers for those killed and injured and their families.

  20. Basic observations: a country music concert was the target, which is primarily attended by Trump voters. Shooters asian gf supposedly worked at hotel. Full auto rifle was used with multiple reloads.

    Waiting for specifics which may never reach the light of day, but it would hardly be shocking if this guy had Hillary stickers all over his Prius. The only question now, is if Trump has another meeting with Chuck n Nancy about the need for “assault rifle bans” because the “weapons of war should not be on the streets.” Oh, and if Eric Holder supplied the rifle.

  21. Get ready for the “Deadliest mass shooting in history!” Headlines. That coverage really bothers me. I think it’s equivalent to “New record set! Who can beat it? We’ll make you famous!”

  23. I think it’s really strange that the perp was 64. Usually the freaks who do this kind of thing are in their teens or twenties. For someone that old to pull this I can only believe it was politically or religiously motivated. I won’t make any speculation as to what exactly that may have been.

  24. It’s hard to be precise, but using google maps distance measurement tool, I’m getting that the portion of Mandalay Bay he was firing from is something like 300 – 400 meters away from the general area of the concert. But, obviously, he was also high up as that’s just a rough ground level measurement.

    To those more deeply versed on long range ballistics, does that realistically rule anything out in terms of the weapons used?

    • With 100m of drop to work with, a crowd of 30,000 and no particular need to aim, I’d say that doesn’t really rule out anything besides shotguns with birdshot.

    • It probably doesn’t rule much of anything out. To my ear, as the cyclic rate rises and falls, it sounded like a bump-fire stock or BFS/Echo trigger. Going full cyclic or near-full cyclic turns practically anything into an area weapon. The most popular rifle in the US is the AR platform, usually chambered in 5.56 or 7.62; both rounds are easily capable of lethal hits at these ranges and accept the above-mentioned components to simulate fill-auto fire. Add in a fair red det or decent iron sights and the weapon easily has the capability to engage and hit at the ranges we’re discussing.

    • It probably doesn’t rule much of anything out. To my ear, as the cyclic rate rises and falls, it sounded like a bump-fire stock or BFS/Echo trigger. Going full cyclic or near-full cyclic turns practically anything into an area weapon. The most popular rifle in the US is the AR platform, usually chambered in 5.56 or 7.62; both rounds are easily capable of lethal hits at these ranges and accept the above-mentioned components to simulate fill-auto fire. Add in a fair red det or decent iron sights and the weapon easily has the capability to do this. In short, no. It doesn’t rule out much of anything.

    • Most rifle rounds are lethal for at least half a mile. Accuracy was clearly not a concern here. He was just firing blindly into a crowd of people.

  26. Early reports, which are always at least partially wrong on important elements of the story, nevertheless characterize the shooter as “known to police.” Surprise, surprise.

    Thats frequently the case, whether the killer is known to local police or “known to intelligence services.” Yet, if true in this case, it’s yet another known and ticking tine bomb that we all just sat around and described as a colorful character, but did nothing about.

    The gun community’s steadfast refusal to do anything about the psychos among us is what begets over reaching, wildly unconstitutional court orders authorizing detentions and confiscations. Clean your own house, POTG, or the Dems will use your inaction as a pretext to lay waste to your rights.

    • Not my house. I didn’t kill anyone, and neither have any of my firearms, so this had nothing to do with me, or any other gun owners I know. You’re barking up the wrong tree.

      Go clean your own (glass) house, before you throw any stones at us.

  27. Kiss full auto goodbye IF the evil killer had a real machine gun. Get what you can while you CAN…

  28. The psycho had been in the hotel room for days waiting for what he considered the right time to strike. This was carefully planned. It would not be surprising to find that he was part of Antifa or another socialists ass like the one who shot Scalise.

  29. Daily Mail reporting presumed shooter had hunting and fishing licenses along with pilots license. Hardly earmarks of an unhinged nut job. Pilots license especially isn’t easy. Leftists and Jihadis aren’t typically fly fishermen and deer hunters.

    Family describes him as a regular guy; no indication he was capable of anything like this. Lived in nice $400k house in stable retirement community. Cute girlfriend. Apparently a firearms hobbyist.

    No way to question him since he was dead when SWAT breached his room. Presumably self inflicted but that’s for a coroner to say.

    Sure are a lot of questions to be asked and hopefully answered here. Thanks TTAG for staying on top of this.

  30. Prayers for the victims.

    We will need to be louder and more engaged than the anti’s. Get ready.

  31. No political commentary here, just deep sadness. Sadness at the loss of life and the horrendous injuries. Sadness that we will likely never know what drove the attack, and how to identify such people and get them to hospital before they strike.

  33. I had heard on a talk radio show (Levine) the shooter had spent DAYS setting this up; carrying in guns and ammunition. So it was PLANNED in advance = premeditated murder.

    Also, that the shooter had recently PASSED a government NICS check to purchase a shotgun.

    So my question is: What law can conceivably be passed that would or could prevent this sort of action?
    THERE IS NONE!

    • First, I apologise for taking this up whilst there is still, literally, blood on the street, but the blind belief in the right to kill from long distance is simply too much to ignore. Thus, my response to:

      “So my question is: What law can conceivably be passed that would or could prevent this sort of action?
      THERE IS NONE!”

      Yes there is…mandatory turn-in, such as Australia implemented. Those who refuse turn-in, are instant felons waiting to be found. All gun ranges and gun sales shops would be thus forced from business; no place to practice shooting, no new gun sales to “enjoy”. With mandatory turn-in, any contact between police and public can be written in as probable cause to search for firearms. Any use of a firearm, of any type, for any purpose other than law enforcement would render a self-defense shooter a criminal, as well as the attacker.

      It is really quite simple. Your are better off with common sense compromise than total confiscation. Especially if confiscation only applies to “law abiding” residents. We all know that solving the problem of criminals and gangs with guns is impossible because, as you say, they are not the sort to comply with laws. The result would be that which is so feared…only the criminals will have guns.

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