USA Breaks Record For Mass Deaths By Gun Shooting

Ken AshfordCrime, Disasters, Gun ControlLeave a Comment

And here we go again. Politicians will send thoughts and prayers and…

… right… condolences and sympathies, etc… and then nothing will be done.

So here’s what happened.

There are now at least 50 dead and some 200 400 injured. The 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, was previously the deadliest, with 49 killed.

A gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, fired upon a music festival crowd (the Route 91 Harvest Festival — a country music concert) from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.  He apparently broke the windows with a hammer or some other blunt device.

This happened just after 10 p.m. Sunday local time (1 a.m. ET Monday)  

Here’s a compilation video:

Police scanner as it happened:

“The gunshots lasted for 10-15 minutes. It didn’t stop. We just ran for our lives,” witness Rachel De Kerf told CNN. “The band was rushed off the stage, the floodlights came on the crowd, and you see on the right hand of the stage the person who was injured, so they’re calling for medics, calling for security, then there was gunfire again,” her sister told the network.

According to the NY TImes: “The shooting began around 10:08 p.m. local time, the police said. The authorities estimated that 406 people were transported to hospitals. There were more than 22,000 people at the concert.”

SWAT teams entered the hotel room where Paddock was. He had killed himself. At least 10 guns were found in Mr. Paddock’s hotel room, including several rifles.

This is the Paddock:

Motive unknown, although…

No prior criminal records except a traffic ticket.  His brother says he was not religious, not political, and must have “snapped”

Unidentified relatives told the newspaper that Paddock, who lived in a retirement community in the sleepy desert city of Mesquite, some 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, lived a quiet, uneventful life. He enjoyed country music and visited Sin City frequently to gamble and attend concerts at the flashy hotels that line the Strip, the relatives said.

Mesquite police chief Quinn Averett said in a press conference that “some weapons” and “maybe some ammunition” were found in Paddock’s home, where officers executed a search warrant.

Don’t politicize this?

To be updated….

UPDATE — Right wing is working hard to control the spin with fake news….

UPDATE 11:20 am EST — President Trump read comments from a teleprompter.  Sounded great, looked awful.  Didn’t ad lib so everyone is rushing to compliment how “presidential” he was.  In truth, he is rather low energy when there’s no racial division or paranoia and fear to stoke.  There was nothing useful to Trump in what happened last night in Vegas, and it shows in his lack of reaction.

UPDATE 11:40 am EST —  Police say death toll is 58 (possibly 59) with over 515 injured.

UPDATE 11:50 am EST —

The Washington Post reports:

Geary Danley was not the gunman in Las Vegas who killed at least 50 people late Sunday. But for hours on the far-right Internet, would-be sleuths scoured Danley’s Facebook likes, family photographs and marital history to try to “prove” that he was.

The right-wing news site Gateway Pundit also picked up these rumors as fact in a now-deleted article. That article’s URL was still the top result for Danley’s name on Google in the early hours of Monday morning.

The headline, still visible in search results, and remaining on the first page of results for Danley when I ran my 9 a.m. search, read, “Las Vegas Shooter Reportedly a Democrat Who Liked Rachel Maddow, MoveOn.org and Associated with anti-Trump Army.”

After Gateway Pundit accused an innocent Michigan man of being the Charlottesville Nazi terrorist, a lawyer for the man’s family vowed to sue. So far there are no reports that a suit has been filed.

Note: The Gateway Pundit has White House press credentials.

UPDATE — Horrifying

UPDATE: Scum…

UPDATE — Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock is son of Benjamin Paddock, bank robber once on FBI most-wanted list. Might be clue to his background.  Stephen Paddock is an accountant, no kids, divorced.