Clearly a machine gun. This story gets odder and odder. 10/2/17 Las Vegas Review-Journal interviewed the brother who said no mental health or money problems and is surprised by a "cache" of guns in the hotel room. The brother says Stephen Paddock had a gun or two.
ISIS claims he was a recent convert. 10/2/17 Reuters:
CAIRO, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed at least 50 people and wounded over 400 in Las Vegas early on Monday, and said the attacker had converted to Islam a few months ago.
"The Las Vegas attack was carried out by a soldier of the Islamic State and he carried it out in response to calls to target states of the coalition," the group's news agency Amaq said in reference to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group in the Middle East.Not quite sure that I believe it. No other pattern fits; schizophrenia very seldom presents in the 60s; no financial problems; not directed at family members; no apparent extremist political ideology.
It could have been bump fire. The rate of fire sounds continuous, but ragged.
ReplyDeleteVery sad and tragic.
The audio indicates full auto fire. But the fire is extremely long even for a 30 rd magazine and when there is a pause its too short for a mag swap. Now he might have been emptying a gun and then grabbing a new loaded weapon (which would explain the number of guns). But as stated, a 64 year old mass shooter is not the norm by any means. This is going to take some time for the Police to get sorted.
ReplyDeleteThis is tragic.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly isn't clear who the shooter was/is and what exactly happened; it sounds like full auto fire from perhaps two different guns. It is definitely not semi-auto fire, though it may be bump fire- it goes on for longer than I've ever heard bump fire, but that's a possibility. Could be drum magazines on an AK- or AR- platform.
Even more confusion on the shooter. So far it appears that he's a white male, a gambler, a pilot who owned two aircraft. Not your typical nutcase type, but could be. May even be two shooters; we don't know much yet.
ISIS has claimed responsibility, but they lie a lot, and this guy doesn't fit any standard muslim profile. Antifa is another possibility that I'm leaning toward: dissatisfied lefty, anti-Trumper, shooting up country music festival which usually has a lot of Trump supporters.
All speculation at this point. One thing I can be sure of is that the Left will be pushing hard for more gun control. Maybe we should consider a law making murder illegal?
Prayers for the victims of this terrible occurrence.