What Actually Happened?
On October 1st 2017 Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Country music festival audience in Las Vegas. Paddock had over 23 guns in his hotel room and 19 more back home, with main weapon used being an illegal automatic weapon with a custom scope and bipod. Police have stated it is also possible the weapon was customised with a bump stock which allows for rapid fire.
He claimed 59 lives and injured over 500 more, one of which was in a 2 week coma, but with the weapon used there was a surprisingly low death doll since there was over 20,000 people at the concert. But even so, it is being known as the worst Mass Shooting in modern day American history with no current motive for Paddock doing the shooting with his brother even stating “he didn’t know he owned a gun”
Why did it happen?
Current theories include ISIS, who claimed responsability for the attack (which has been disproven by the FBI with no links proven). The possibility of an undiagnosed mental illness. Poddock was a secret gun enthusiast who had a mental breakdown (which his brother has denied). Rumours state he wished to be famous and this was the only way he knew how and some internet conspiracy theories which include the Illuminati and Poddock being brainwashed.
Clearly targeted
Being at the Mandalay Bay Resort, it helps the theory that Paddock knew exactly what he was aiming for. With so many other famous areas such as the Sphinx statue, Las Vegas Boulevard and the Luxor Hotel also in view, it shows that he only wished to target the concert for a currently unknown reason.
The Aftermath
Currently Las Vegas is having a dip in its Tourism with some Casinos seeing about a tenth the amount of people they usually see, this along with the strip is a lot quieter then usual, with some parts still blocked off by police, showing the strong negative effects this has already left on Las Vegas’ tourism industry. The FBI and heavily armed security forces are on high alert, guarding elevators and doing strong security checks, with the main question being how long wil that last for? But the main aftermath is that 59 families have to cope with the loss of a loved one with over 500 people having injuries which could effect their whole lives as well as approximately 20% of emergency service staff who helped out during the tragedy being treated for PTSD along with many concert goers (both injured and uninjured) also being treated.
How to help prevent this happening again?
Currently Nevada does not have good background checks and you only need one if you get a store bought weapon whilst weapons privately bought off friends or neighbours does not require a background check, and it is not mandatory in Nevada to be on an official register for possessing a firearm. With the United States owning 42% of 650 million civilian firearms worldwide (273 million approximately), and even though automatic weapons are mostly banned, simple and legal customisations can allow single shot weapons to fire the same as automatics.
This should probably be discussed, with President Trump acknowledging gun laws should be spoken about more, but also stating it would be as a much later time. Trump also stated the attack was pure evil which many have stated was hypocritical of him, since other shootings with Muslim or Islamic shooters led to Trumps Muslim Ban, whilst this shooting won’t even be properly acknowledged because of the Second Amendment Rights.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/nra-vegas-shooting.html?smid=tw-share
http://abcnews.go.com/US/27-year-victim-las-vegas-shooting-wakes-coma/story?id=50490156
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/03/what-gun-used-las-vegas-shooting/726743001/
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/las-vegas-police-investigating-shooting-mandalay-bay-n806461
http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/10/us/las-vegas-shooting-victims/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41479011
https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/trump-unlikely-to-dwell-on-las-vegas-shooting-for-long/
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/las-vegas-first-responders-deal-emotional-aftermath-mass-shooting-n807656