By At least 58 people are dead and over 500 injured after a gunman open-fired from the 32nd floor of a hotel in Las Vegas at families attending a country music festival late Sunday night. The shooter has been identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, from Mesquite, Nev., who also died of a fatal gunshot wound.
Paddock rapid-fired for an extended period of time from his room at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino into the crowd of concert attendees below, which was approximately 22,000 individuals. At least 10 weapons were found inside his room at the resort.
Law enforcement reached the scene a little after 10 p.m. (1 a.m. ET), where Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said that Paddock killed himself before the police arrived. Prior reports by authorities say that law enforcement fatally shot Paddock.
The shooter has been identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, from Mesquite, Nev., who also died of a fatal gunshot wound.
In a statement, President Donald Trump said he plans to visit the city on Wednesday and called the shooting “an act of pure evil.”
Although ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting, authorities believe there is no connection to international terrorism. “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,” Amaq, the terrorist organization’s news agency, said. However, FBI officials have dismissed the claims.
This shooting comes as members of the GOP push for a bill that would make it easier to purchase gun silencers.
“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get,” Hillary Clinton tweeted Monday. “Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”
As the death toll and injuries from the massacre accumulate, whether this will have a tangible effect on gun control policy is yet to be seen.
We are all composed of multiple idenities, current ones we are proud of, as they show success, status, recognition, others are in the past, (completed or lingering?) to which we downplay. I am a white male, 60+, I got my first God-given identity as small-town Southerner sent off to a private all male all white prep school. I am emphasizing this is what I didn’t choose, It was chosen by God. That is a fact, and a factor for the rest of my life. My generation is the same as the shooter. We experienced enough of the same US cultural events, probably. There is a part of our identity that overlaps . Though my Judgement is not finished, I could say” But for the Grace of God, I am not so mentally and spiritually twisted as he was, I experience the daily life of the ragged divisions he and I are all part of. Even now, I know you couldn’t accept part
Why am I not surprised to find that you have a website dedicated to trashing white people and feeling sorry for yourself.
Jarco, that’s not what this website is about at all. I’ve been drawn to it after reading Amani’s book, and she makes it very clear it’s about providing a voice for Muslim women in a society which often goes out of its way to silence those voices. I’m a white, mostly English male, not the target audience for this at all, but I work and live with people from all backgrounds, and the least I can do is listen to what they have to say. I;m also confused about what in the above article either ‘trashes white people’ or ‘feels sorry for themselves’ – are you projecting here?