As we all stand aghast at the atrocity in Las Vegas, one of the many things that grinds my teeth is hearing the talking heads on TV talk about the evil POS who perpetrated it “going out in a blaze of glory.”  A blaze of what?!?

They should call it a blaze of shame, because there can be no glory in the cowardly murder of the innocent.

He literally shot fish in a barrel: from his aerie, with a rifle equipped with a mechanical device to enhance speed of fire, on a bipod on a laboriously-created platform in his hotel suite, to shoot at tens of thousands of people who were packed like sardines in a two-acre venue.

Naturally, the first cries before the blood had dried came from Hillary Clinton and those like her: “Ban silencers, which would have made it worse!”  “Ban private ownership of machine guns,” no legal example of which was used here; only one of which since 1934 has to my knowledge been used to commit murder.  (And that one case involved a police officer, who claimed it went off by accident.) See here.

And of course, the cry is now “Ban bump-fire type stocks, etc.”, even though to my knowledge this is the first time that device has been used to commit murder, too.

It’s human nature when we see a terrible thing happen to feel and say, “We must do Something!”  Unfortunately, that tends to quickly turn into, “We must blame Someone!”

That someone, naturally, is gun owners and the NRA, in the eyes of those committed to left-wing agendas.  At least one pundit from “the port side” has called for NRA to be declared a terrorist organization, and another has called for white males who own a lot of guns and ammunition to be “profiled.”  A CBS attorney was fired for tweeting that she couldn’t feel sorry for the victims at the country music concert in Las Vegas, because she assumed they must be “repugs”… Republicans.  Talk about profiling…

Amidst all this shameful behavior, though, we’ve seen things which make us proud to be Americans. The ordinary American citizens at the concert who shielded other people’s bodies with their own, and risked being killed to drag others out of the field of fire.  The splendid performance of Las Vegas’ emergency services personnel, from the police to the firefighter/paramedics to the staffs at the hospitals.

There is much more to learn about this atrocity. Law enforcement is dealing with one of the most complicated crime scenes in American history, and the background investigation will also take a considerable amount of time.  Doubtless, more examples of American heroism will surface.  So, unfortunately, will more examples of shallow political ambition and “political identity” hatred.

68 COMMENTS

  1. Well said. Might I add that the media needs to do some soul searching and find a way to inform us without creating yet another example to be copycatted? Their needs to be some guidelines published about how to cover these without the sensationalism. We need to shun the news sources that refuse to tamp down the 24/7 publicity these animals get. The threshold theory of violence postulates that the more violence we see the more those who might originally be disinclined to be violent become violent. Shaming and shunning might help reverse that cycle. After all in 13 cases since Columbine the shooter acted with the goal of exceeding a prior events body count… not good.

    • Until we find a way to lawfully change these opportunists’ misbehavior after a mass casualty event, it will go on. They must be ushered into a new era where they have more to lose than gain by continuing to do what they do. Also, we have to also get our messages out so that we are listened to and honored.

  2. Well said Mas..

    I despise these people jumping on their left wing anti-gun bandwagon to further their foolish agenda’s when they should be giving thanks and praying for the thousands of survivors, the hero’s and first responders that were able to contain further loss of life. My heart breaks for the victims of this sick individual that felt the need to take innocent life for who knows what reason, perhaps we will never know. All this stupid political fighting must stop NOW. This nation is so terribly divided. To continue down this path will be this nations demise.

  3. I truely don’t know what to think, I’ve read and seen and heard so many conflicting stories. They’re changing by the hour. Every outlet is different. I’ll take your advice and wait ’til the facts are in. Untill then prayers for those affected.

  4. The mass media comments serve only to display their ignorance. The Left has spead so much BS that it is breath taking. All the BS about “machine guns and silencers” would make anyone who has has a brain shudder. Agenda, agenda, agenda! So sad.

  5. We may never know what motivated this despicable person, but no doubt he was motivated. I personally don’t believe this venue was targeted because of the makeup of the crowd, but rather the location of the venue in relation to the elevated platform provided by the hotel he was intimately knowledgeable with. No doubt in the past, he had seen the concerts with fans packed like sardines with fences and other barriers preventing quick ingress or egress, and the seeds were planted in his mind for just an event like he carried out. It was the act itself that drove him, not the politics, race, likely ideologies, or anything else. Yes, there is a very real possibility that he was just a purely evil person. They do walk among us. We like to assign a reason that explains their evil acts, a “motive”, but sometimes it’s just the evil itself.

    • Those in the anti gun column will do what they do best. No need to get ones parties in a wad over a predictable response. If we get out of this with no more than a bump stock bump in the crotch then lucky us. But if there is an ugly head rising up to attack lost Americans looking for answers or at least something tangible to hate, then let it play. The grief will move on.

      Truth will prevail. But blame is the first step in healing. Remember you cannot fix this but you can make it worse.

  6. As we wait for the investigative facts to be revealed by the authorities I raise the concern about Antifa and their announced plan for nationwide protests on 04 November 2017. I think there are increasing possibilities of another mass casualty incident between now and then. Watch your six folks and be prepared for the unexpected. Especially if the Las Vegas shooter is linked to Antifa.

  7. Mas, forgive me if this is too far off thread, but it chilled me when I read it. I’ve tried to resist the conspiracy theory angles many put forward by some of government complicity attempting to encourage the population to demand gun control.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/victim-of-draw-muhammad-isis-inspired-terror-attack-sues-fbi-accuses-james-comey-of-cover-up/article/2636321

    This lawsuit bears watching. Although we are no longer close, I knew the local officer who took these shooters out.

  9. The LA Times that stated that off duty police at the concert were unarmed. Evidently, they were not allowed to carry in the concert stadium. Those are the laws we need to change.
    Until the laws regarding carrying in large venues are changed, I don’t believe I would take chances with my life and the lives of my loved ones going to a crowded venue without having protection. Crowds are dangerous places these days attracting terrorists (both kinds – religious and loonies). The first tactical decision regarding dangerous situations is to avoid being there in the first place – like walking into a biker bar at 1:00 AM. For that reason, I avoid all crowded sports and entertainment venues where I am not allowed to carry. There is plenty of life to live and experience without having to attend those venues.

    • I couldn’t agree more. I also avoid shopping malls when Christmas approaches. Quite frankly, considering how little goes into securing crowded events, etc. these days, I’m surprised that things haven’t been much worse. Often my wife and I think about how lucky we were to grow up when we did (in the 60s). Things like terrorism and street gangs as violent and insane as they are now were things we never could have even imagined. We had freedom that no longer exists. Instead, we now have all of the angry enablers on the left who only want to fight to make things much worse.

  10. Disarmament of a population is a necessary step for any totalitarian ideology to flourish. The vast pool of firearms and the existing legal restraints, like the 2nd Amendment, represent severe obstacles for the establishment of a leftist totalitarian State in the United States. Therefore, the American Left has pulled out all stops (and will continue to do so) for firearms prohibition. They, literally, cannot succeed without first disarming the American People.

    The tactics used by the American Left are all too clear. They offer firearms prohibition as a utopian solution to violence. They proclaim that the rest of the World is already far ahead of the USA with respect to such prohibition (which is mostly true) and that they reap enormous benefits as a result (which is largely false). They continuously flood the airways with propaganda supporting firearms prohibition. The mainstream media, hollywood, academia, leftist politicians, etc. are all “on board” in pressing for it. Numerous anti-gun groups, funded by anti-gun billionaires, work 24/7/365 for the cause.

    Yet, despite a “brain-washing” effort that exceeds even those mandated by such leftist leaders as Stalin and Mao, they have largely failed to implement firearms prohibition. It has only taken root in the bluest of blue States.

    So, to do even more, the left resorts to its favorite tactic. The exploitation of mass shootings. The Left turns the switch on its propaganda machine to “over-drive” whenever one of these events happen. The bloodier the event; the more the Left hypes it.

    Note that the use of this tactic is a tacit admission that firearms prohibition is such a “bad idea” that the Left’s only prayer of getting it to pass is on a wave of emotion. It is an admission that firearms prohibition (aka Gun Control) cannot stand up to reason and debate. It cannot succeed rationally therefore, it can only be passed during those times when emotions overwhelm logic.

    The Left may well eventually keep chipping away at the 2nd Amendment until they disarm the people. Such overwhelming pressure is difficult to defy forever. In the long run, I very much fear the destruction of the democracies in North-America and Europe. In the broad sweep of human history, one always sees the rise and fall of civilizations. The pattern is clear. A civilization’s roots typically begin in hardship. Hard times typically breeds hard, pragmatic citizens. For example, the frontier in America gave rise to America’s toughness and character. The result is growth of the Nation and the procurement of a comfortable life.

    However, the seeds of destruction are sown by the flower of success. This comfortable life breeds citizens who are soft and weak. Who see themselves as privileged “snowflakes”. Furthermore, their safe and comfortable environment readily breeds the view that “All humans are Good”. This leads to the cancerous “Left-wing” ideology which eats at the fabric of a society like a decaying fungus. The result is a general lowering of educational, moral, legal, civil, and social standards. Thus, the once great civilization totters and falls. The victim of its own internal “dry rot”.

    The cancer of left-wing ideology is already widespread in America, Canada and the Nations of Europe. I would expect the general fall of these Western Civilizations within this century with power shifting to another part of the World (Asia?). Eventually, of course, the hardships associated with a fallen civilization may encourage the people of the old USA to “toughen-up” again. Who knows, in another century or two, we may see the rise of a new nation (USA 2.0?). Then the whole cycle can begin again. Fortunately, I should be safely dead before all this comes to pass! 🙂

  11. We need to jail the political gangsters that created ISIS, nuke-armed Little Rocket Man, and who promote and exploit criminal shootings in order to undermine the Second Amendment and further their criminal agendas.
    From studying videos, I see at least three shooters in the M. Bay hotel, one each on the third, fourth, and thirty-second floors. I would like to see the complete official report on Paddock’s reported suicide. If other shooters were involved, wasn’t Paddock certainly a patsy of some sort?

  12. The core difference between conservative/libertarians and the progressives is the belief in the perfectibility of man. Progressives believe that with the right laws, and the right smart people in charge, Utopia can be achieved. Those of us on the other side recognize the evils of human nature (for religious conservatives, it’s a cornerstone of faith), and that those evils can never be fully vanquished. That said when it comes to guns, we’re not immune to that conceit.

    I bring this up because I’ve been dealing with this on Facebook all day, and I’m even seeing hints of concealed carry Utopianism here. “If people had been allowed to carry, this wouldn’t have been as tragic.”

    We believe that an armed society is polite, and evidence backs that up. We can point to falling crime rates as gun ownership goes up. We can point out that more people are killed by fists than all rifles put together in any given year. However, unless your name is Jerry Miculek, you had no chance of stopping this with a concealed firearm, and I suspect (though I’ve never met the man) even that Immortal would admit it wasn’t a sure thing. The shooter was thirty-plus floors up, and a few hundred yards away. If every person in that arena was armed, the results would have been the same. To argue this tragedy makes the case for more concealed carry is ludicrous. Concealed carry will not lead to a murderless nirvana, and to imply that it will makes us guilty of the same foolish assumptions as the gun grabbers.

    At least from what we know now, the only steps that might have stopped this man were ones that we shouldn’t tolerate in a society. That is the case we should be making. It’s a horrible fact of life, but sometimes the dragon wins.

  13. As with every previous such incident, the “facts” change at a rather rapid rate for at least a week after. The whole thing “smells” fishy to me, too. I suppose how the government handles the final report will be the strongest indicator as to whether or not this one, too, is a false flag event. First reports were of a machine gun or fully automatic weapon. Now it seems it was some sort of home made mod that sort of made it behave like one. Now someone is saying there were shots fired from at least one, possibly two or more,”bases of operation”/ I saw one report that ISIS have claimed him as one of them, a recent convert to the “religion of peace.. (and mass murder)

    The instant and non-sensical “responses” (as if they had been prepared well in advance and released within minutes of the event) from so many “sources” is reminiscent of other previous incidents….

  14. I have NO expectation of people in mourning, the grief stricken, to act rationally for some period of time.

    Everyone else: I have a 100% expectation that you act and think coldly and rationally. If you do not, I won’t give you the time of day.

    The first tidbit of information I have for you is the following:

    It begins with a question:

    Do you trust and rely on your local state, and federal government, without question, 100%?

    Ask yourself that. Most people will at least try to qualify their trust in government, applying rules and conditions to that trust.

    That being said, the Las Vegas mass murder was NOT the worst in U.S. history, The worst being the massacre of 300, mostly women and children, native AMERICANS, by the federal government at Wounded Knee.

    One can point to other federal government killing at WACO, and RUBY RIDGE, or in the case where the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb on the roof of the Osage Avenue rowhouse compound of MOVE, an anarchists’ group. The explosion led to a massive fire that destroyed 61 rowhomes in the West Philadelphia neighborhood and the deaths of 11 people, including five children. that, whatever the underlying accusations of crime, the incidents were 100% unnecessary.

    So before everyone goes off half cocked, calling for this or that law, or smearing persons or groups, I encourage you to set your emotional reactions aside and think.

    And just in case you think I fall on the side of anti-government, anti law enforcement, think again:

    I see a need for limited government, and tend to give unqualified support to the police at all levels. Even when they point rifles at me as they did a little over a year ago. (A story for another day).

    It’s an article of faith for the Left that you can’t keep teenagers from having sex. And that outlawing abortion just means women will get them illegally. And that you can’t keep junkies from getting high. So make it all legal.

    In my state, I now observe billboard advertising for marijuana.

    How is it, then, that Left believes, ALSO as an article of faith, that gun control would keep criminals from getting guns?

    France has all the gun control any Anti-Gun American could ever wish for. It is repudiated by the Bataclan massacre, with roughly double the fatalities.

    So, still not knowing all the facts in this case, what can we point to as a proximate cause of this horrible crime?

    Evil is existent in this world, Satan is very active, his demons are everywhere.. WHY YOU ASK?

    We invited them in.

    We murder the unborn, we denigrate marriage and the family, we allow children to grow up without fathers or mothers, we turn our children over to be raised by the state because both parents must or desire to have careers. We contaminate society with all manner of deviancy and have become morally relativistic. We attack and dismiss the church, and turn away from the Almighty.

    We created an amusement park for evil.

    And it has a fistful of tickets.

    Supernatural forces aside, the murderer acted because of an IDEA.

    Outside of a brain tumor as in the Charles Whitman case, this individual acted on an IDEA.

    How do I extrapolate this based on scant available facts?

    It’s very simple.

    His attack was very sophisticated, well planned, well supplied, and took a long, long time in planning, preparation, practice, and implementation.

    He was able to set aside any sort of human emotion or empathy for his victims, just as a trained soldier does. While they may be affected by it at some point during their combat experience, or afterwards, soldiers are trained to dehumanized their designated enemy and eliminate them as efficiently as possible.

    All of this takes considerable time, and INDOCTRINATION. In this case, self applied. He was presented with an idea, spent considerable time studying it, internalizing it, and then acting on it.

    What the IDEA was, who put in in front of him, and how he went about programming himself to act will at some point become clear.

    One ideology or another is going to be put forth as a primary causal factor.

    It could be an ideology that I despise. It may be one that I favor, taken much too far, twisted and deformed into something I wouldn’t recognize or support in any way.

    It’s either that or he was the most organized, trained and prepared madman and random spree killer in history, which just doesn’t ring as likely with me. This has all similarities to a terrorist attack, and terrorists, while wrong, hate filled and evil, are perfectly rational.

    But one thing i am certain of:

    Any retaliatory violence on anyone’s part would simply multiply the tragedy.

    Ideas can be very powerful, and some men (regardless of intelligence) are very weak of mind and susceptible to them. While being no mitigating factor in any case, it is a failing that I see all the time. An idea taken to an extreme. An idea taken to a place where it never should have gone. Or an idea that was bad, proffered by bad men, and made seductive by repetitive, skilled inculcation .

    Be careful in your thinking. Always be wary of those who try to be rightest by being the loudest. Or the smoothest talking.

  15. Gun violence? How about PEOPLE violence?
    I’ve never had a gun get mad at me, yell at me, try to cheat me, or cause me any grief.
    Maybe it’s time we face some facts. And take a close look at what we have become as a society. And what is being created by this society.
    And the society I speak of includes me.

  16. The perpetrator was apparently a pilot. What if he had loaded up cans of fuel into a private plane and nose-dived straight into the crowd? More casualties very likely. In this day and age a person with a little money, who is motivated and plans ahead, can kill a lot of people and there is only so much that can be done about it. Not promoting them in the media afterwards would help.

    But as usual, the sociopath uses a gun that gets the media excited, and the media rewards the perp by putting his name, face, and bio in front of the whole country. Some quid pro quo.

    300 yards away, 20,000 people, and more than 1 hour between first and last shots. Horrific death toll, but a bolt action deer rifle, or a lever action, in the hands of an experienced hunter would have had a worse outcome.

  17. The police took more than one hour to end this incident in Las Vegas. That long length of time directly contributed to the large number of victims. I don’t mean to be unduly critical of the police here. Their actions were brave and they responded as best that they could. However, frankly, sending a swat team into the hotel to “root out” the shooter is always going to take time. It is, perhaps, not the best tactic to employ in this situation.

    The shooter, in this case, basically adopted the tactics of a sniper. He set up his position, established a “kill zone” and then went to work. Despite his reported lack of military training, it was a military-style attack. Therefore, the correct response would have been a military response rather than a police “swat team” response.

    It is well-known that one of the most effect ways to deal with a sniper is to use counter-sniping. If there had been police sniper teams already in-place and pre-positioned in “overlook” positions for this event, it is likely that they could have neutralized this shooter within a few minutes. This would have saved many lives.

    I would suggest that the lesson from this incident is not the leftist narrative that “we need more gun control”. Rather, the lesson ought to be that we need improved police tactics. Specifically, that large outdoor events, that are held in locations where there is a potential for a criminal sniper attack, need pre-positioned counter-sniper teams in-place so as to allow a rapid response to any sniper attack.

    • I agree with you completely about the fact that a counter-sniper operation could have stopped things much quicker had counter-snipers been in position and ready to go. But the logistics of it seem daunting. Are we really prepared to have multiple teams of counter-snipers at every event? And what if a counter-sniper is compromised?

      Lastly, it should be noted that the actual shooting only (“only”?) went on for the first 12 minutes and then for some reason, the shooter stopped shooting and the police considered the situation to have changed to a barricaded suspect situation and responded accordingly. I’m sure that had he continued shooting after the police had arrived, rifles would have been sending lead up his way through those two windows and the team inside would have been able to locate him much quicker by honing in on the sound of his gunfire.

      • To both .45StayAlive and Jack Zeller:

        Is it really “daunting” for the police to have two or three counter-sniping teams available for a multi-day event that draws thousands? Is it really stupid? I am not suggesting a army division as Zeller seems to believe.

        Perhaps we should consider the costs of dealing with 59 dead civilians and the resulting “wrongful-death” lawsuits that are sure to come. Perhaps we should consider the costs of treating hundreds of people for gunshot wounds or other injuries. Perhaps we should consider the costs of a multi-state and Federal investigation that will take months if not years to finish and require tens of thousands of man-hours. Perhaps we should consider the costs to our liberty and our 2nd Amendment Rights as the Left uses this incident as a spring-board to attack both.

        With these costs placed on the scale, I submit that the cost of providing some police counter-sniping support to large outdoor events may not be so great or logistically daunting as you might think.

    • TN_MAN, since these mass shootings began, all police departments instituted a policy of immediate engagement by the first officer on the scene involving an “active shooter”, but this policy was implemented to deal with much smaller venues (schools, theaters, etc.), not 2acres packed with 22,000 people being fired upon from a quarter mile away from a huge hotel comprised of multiple hundreds of rooms, with no clear overview to pin-point the shooter’s location. Could this scenario be trained for? Of course. How much money and manpower are municipalities realistically expected to invest to be prepared to respond instantaneously to events such as this?

      Navy Seals and Delta Force teams do impressive work. Seldom, if ever, are they called upon to take down a target without recon, surveillance, and time to place assets prior to engagement. Hell, how many days did they train and practice the assault on a to scale replica of Bin Laden’s compound before execution of the actual mission?

      No doubt, lessons will be learned in the aftermath of this atrocity. Those lessons will be shared by police departments nationwide. Don’t expect cities to ever spend the money to equip and pay for the manpower to have a whole lot better responses to these still relatively infrequent occurrences. Police can’t operate at a level the politicians refuse to fund. Every department would love to have the funding to respond better to all possibilities. It ain’t going to happen.

      • Dennis, it is strange to me that we, as a Nation, have the funding to clean up the mess after these bloody events but somehow lack the funding to try to combat them.

        In my opinion, every large city that plays host to large sporting or entertainment events needs to have a threat assessment team. This team should study the venue before every large event and then try to put themselves into the mind of a terrorist or mass murderer. They should ask themselves, how would I attack this event? Is the venue good for an active shooter attack? Perhaps explosives or fire bombs could be planted? If so, how and where? Perhaps a large vehicle could be driven into the crowd? If it is an open air venue with clear sight lines and nearby elevated positions, could a sniper fire on the crowd?

        Once the possible threats are identified, there are actions that can be taken to combat each one. Metal detectors and ground forces can inhibit active shooters. Dogs and detectors can inhibit the use of bombs. Barriers can be used to protect crowds from vehicle attack. Counter-sniper teams can combat sniper fire.

        Perhaps the problem is not so much a lack of resources. Rather, it may be a lack of imagination and will.

  18. I’m going to step out on a limb here. Authorities seem to have found very little background on the shooter. I feel that we can rest assured that he has never been a NRA member, never registered as a republican, is not a Christian, and never associated with any white supremacist types. If he had, the MSM would have discovered such information within minutes of his name being released and we would be hearing that non-stop.

  19. This thing stinks more than a hog farm! Now, to blame “The Government ” is a leap. Some actors of the deep state, given some of the stuff coming out, makes some sense given the sort of reactions we are seeing. This will make the JFK murder, look like the “Hardy Boys.”

    • Are you the same poster who’s posted under “Uncle Dave” in the past? I just quit using “Dave (the Liberal, non-Uncle One)” as my handle because I thought you were gone. Jeez, I’m going to have to change my handle to “Liberal Mxyzptlk” just to get some closure on this 🙂 (And 20 brownie points to anyone who can identify the source of that name without a Google search. Honor system here!)

      • Liberal Dave, that’s a magical little dwarf from another dimension whose soul purpose in life was to annoy the hell out of Superman (and Supergirl and Superboy … well, you get the picture. Ol’ Sure and company had to trick him to say his name backwards, which sent him back to his own dimensiona.

        Hey, it was a comic book(s). What did you expect? Logic? ?

      • Brownie points awarded to Steve and Kelly for correct answers (and probably, like me, a childhood spent with comic books).

    • Uncle Dave I agree with your comment,it is hard for me to think one indiviual with apparently no training,experience would have the knowledge and forethought to carry this out.He even planted cameras to watch his back?

    • Liberal Dave,
      The first thing we should do is fire anybody in authority who believes that terror can’t be prevented. Then we need to go about implementing proven prevention strategy-and-tactics from the grass roots up. One of the biggest problems we now have is a radical loss of credibility of our insulated enforcement agencies, right along with the dying, spin-stream press. Honesty is still the best policy, and defeatism is worse than useless. High morale is needed, and depends on telling the truth.

      • Yes, we have issues with inter-agency cooperation, but one of the biggest issues is sorting, collating and evaluating the data in real time. However, I think you’ve been binge watching Person of Interest marathons.

  22. How things have changed… When the Texas Tower shooting happened, citizens retrieved hunting rifles from their vehicles and kept the killer pinned down for the most part, saving countless lives. But in this day and age, even at a country music festival, no one was equipped to do such a thing. And in today’s paranoid society, anyone who had retrieved their own rifle would have probably been assumed to be one of the bad guys (since all guns and those wielding them are now considered evil). The shooting continued for more than ten minutes. How long does it take to run to a vehicle less than 200 yards away, grab a rifle and move close enough to shoot accurately? About a minute and a half if you are in reasonable shape, two minutes tops.

    Imagine if just 20 citizens out of the 22,000 there had been able to do this and had done so. They could have collectively placed at least 5 rounds per second through those broke open windows the shooter was shooting from. Even if it didn’t kill the POS, the suppressive fire would have worked magic and changed the numbers significantly.

    My reaction:

    I’ve taken the time to look up the typical bullet drop rates for both 9mm and .45 ACP at 100, 200 and 300 yards and committed the numbers to memory. Either round still packs about 200 ft/lbs of energy at 300 yards, so someone on the receiving end is going to have a very bad day (and even if not hit, the suppressive fire effect will at least slow them down a bit).

    .45 ACP: About 1′, 7′ and 19′ at 100, 200 and 300 yards respectively (‘ means feet, not inches).

    9mm: About 1′, 5′ and 13’ at 100, 200 and 300 yards respectively.

    I’m getting a sedan soon anyway, and will then have a car with a normal trunk. I am seriously considering keeping a rifle (legally) in that trunk.

    • Really? How many innocent civilians in the adjoining rooms would have been at risk due to misplaced shots? It’s one thing shooting at an isolated shooter on the top of a concrete tower as happened in Austin. It’s another altogether shooting into a residential block such as Mandalay Bay.

      • You do realize that if you shoot at an isolated tower and miss, those bullets still return to earth somewhere. There really is no difference in the scenarios, if you shoot, you have an obligation to hit what you aim at.

      • There’s a distinct difference. The misses shooting at the tower ballistically continue to fan out into an area made up of large stretches of unoccupied spaces: lawns, unoccupied rooms in houses, garages, unoccupied parts of streets, and the like. The likelihood of someone being hit is relatively small (and, indeed, I don’t recall anyone being hit by misses shot at Whitman in Austin). Amateur riflemen shooting into a potentially densely occupied hotel caries a much, much higher risk.

  23. Once the investigation is completed, including toxicology reports, I will revisit this blog entry.

    But to Mas’s point, the hypocrisy is astounding yet understandable given the “nature” of those on the port side. That said, let us be thankful this wasn’t an interracial/religious/gender identity/sexual orientation/social justice, pre-birth murderer, [continue filling in the blanks], ___ ___ ___,etc., or else we’d have a real problem on our hands.

    Middle aged, “successful” white dude, shooting into a crowd of majority white folks? No riots, just a bunch of hypocrites, wanting it their way. Surprisingly, those who identify with a majority of those who have been affected directly, are on the starboard side of society and not siding with the talking heads. Go figure.

    I’ll wait for the full investigation to be completed. Stay safe!

    • You said, “let us be thankful this wasn’t an interracial/religious/gender identity/sexual orientation/social justice, pre-birth murderer, [continue filling in the blanks], ___ ___ ___,etc., or else we’d have a real problem on our hands.”

      Huh? Frankly, I think that you have a much bigger problem with the fact that the shooter was not apparently _any_ of those groups. This was, so far as we can tell so far, just an ordinary WASP who went slow-burn postal and took advantage of all his gun rights to kill a bunch of folks. If he was ISIS or politically motivated or long-time-nuts or impaired in some way then you’d at least have _something_ to blame other than the fact that he was a self-pitying White guy with a bunch of guns.

      • When I said “I think that you have a much bigger problem” by you I meant you the pro-gun community, not you individually, Larry.

      • The motivations of this murderer are still vague at this point. I would not rule anything out yet. Even when the mainstream media settles upon a motivation (which they will eventually even if they have to make it up), we will never be sure what was really going on in this man’s mind.

        Your assertion, Liberal Dave, that this man was a “self-pitying White guy” is as much of an assumption as Mr. McClain’s assumption that he did not fit into his list of stereotypes.

        Frankly, at this point, we cannot rule out anything. It might still come out that he converted to Islam a year ago and decided to buy his way into paradise via jihad. I am not suggesting that this is true. I am merely point out that we simply do not know. Maybe we will never know.

  24. Hey, Mas, I hate to go all meta on you, but could you comment on the new comments system? It looks to me like all comments get immediately published without being moderated first. Is that right?

  25. I’m not seeing anything that I would look at as being a different response from the anti gun control people. Seems just like the last tragedies we’ve had in the last few years. And yes this is right at the top of cowardice and it died as one also. And if you can’t see how tragic this is well you don’t have a soul. Are we going to see a huge push to turn gun owners into criminals it’s on and if something else happens well I’m not optimistic about the out come here on in…

  26. As to the response time, cops seemed to have used the SWAT protocol rather than the Active Shooter protocol. While I generally favor the latter, I am not sure the former was wrong here. The Strip has long been identified as a terrorist target and in fact was an official ISIS target. Given this, the cops were reasonable to expect multiple shooters, ambushes, bombs, etc. In the event, it seems not to have mattered as the perp offed himself when the cops were outside the door thus ending the killing.

  27. The guys at work this morning kind of sarcastically asked me what good a concealed carry would do in this situation.
    I calmly replied, “None. When hopelessly ambushed from an elevated position, either radioing in an air strike or heavy mortar fire would be the only real defense. However, a concealed carrying civilian would be able to help law enforcement -who have more experience in crowd situations- and ask to be put to work to assist them.”
    We ARE the good guys, after all.

  28. I think Bumpfire devices should be banned. No one needs full auto. We get along fine without it. Not having it does not violate the 2nd Amendment and SCOTUS would approve any law banning them. If that’s the only law that gets passed as a result of this incident we will be lucky.

    • This isn’t the sort of society that bans things just because we don’t need it. Otherwise it would make infinitely more sense to ban things like alcohol, cigarettes, soft drinks, automobiles, and walking on rain-slick surfaces.

  29. I have had little time to follow the ‘new’ and reports af ‘fact’ develop. So I am shooting in the dark here:

    Do I understand the shooting occurred over basically 10 minutes or so then stopped? And the perp killed himself as police approached the room … quite some time later? He may have intended to survive? Yet he didn’t escape ina timely manner when he had the chance? Is so, well, not being a conspiracy guy but reading the writting …

    Ok. Back to the woods with heavy heart. The inhumanity of humanity never fail to rattle even the most stoically aware. We know there is no simple cure for the human condition except to fight the good fight and rejoice in such as we can when we get the opportunity.

  30. It looks like the “hue and cry” from the media and gun-grabbers will force bans on bump stocks and other similar accessories that allow a semi-auto to fire rapidly. These devices are not good for much except burning ammo in a hurry. Its hard to hit anything with them and this is their first instance of criminal use as far as I know. They were useful to the murderer, in this case, because he was not trying to hit a specific target. Instead, he was using “area fire” on a densely packed crowd of people.

    This is the kind of useless, “feel-good” legislation that is so beloved by the clueless gun-grabbers and mainstream media. It will have zero impact on crime and, since the opportunities for area fire are very rare, little to no impact even on mass shootings. All it will do is give the media and gun-grabbers an opportunity to “strut and crow” and tell themselves that they are “making progress” on building their leftist utopia.

    If the Republican members of Congress have any brains (which I doubt), then they would turn this to their advantage and “make lemonade” out of these lemons. What they should do is tie the bill to ban bump stocks to existing, pending legislation to move suppressors out of the NFA category or for National Concealed Carry Reciprocity.

    That way, to get their precious bump stock ban, the democrats would have to also approve some pro-gun legislation. If the democrats balked and refused to support the bill and it failed, the Republicans could say “hay, don’t blame us. We gave you a bump stock ban bill and YOU refused to support it!”

    Instead of being smart, like this, I expect the Republicans to knuckle under and put it in a separate bill. Then, as usual, the liberals will get everything they want while the pro-gun bills languish.

  31. I am certainly no expert in any manner but I agree with Tn-Man. The only logical defense I can envision against a sniper at long range is a counter sniper team (spotter, shooter) or two, depending upon the size of the event..

  32. And yet, this could have been far worse… Several media outlets have reported that he attempted to rent a room and set up his nest in a different hotel, a few days earlier, in a locale that would have allowed him to fire into a predominately black crowd. One of Obama’s daughters was even in that crowd. IF the attack had in any way been perceived by the public as a racist act that targeted our black brethren, then I’m afraid we would have seen it exploited by social warriors and craven politicans, and we would had massive rioting across the nation. I wish it were otherwise, but there it is.

  33. Tahn: The Secret Service is said to be the most expert authority on defeating snipers. It can provide effective advice. Surprise tactics are bound to be the most useful. Many are the possibilities. More effective human intelligence is very important. Gun-free zones are to be avoided, especially at night, when the goblins most roam. Give me a group of trained, certified, sober, armed shooters adequately armed and dedicated to secure the environment.

  34. If this is true, here is a possible explanation for why this murderer did what he did. As I recall, several previous mass murderers were using medications with similar side-effects.

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/353799-report-suspected-las-vegas-gunman-prescribed-anti-anxiety-medication#.WdcEX1RJ3H8.facebook

    I have also read that there was a note left by the murderer in the hotel room near his body. If so, it would be interesting to know what it said & why it hasn’t been released by the police to the public.

  35. I have no use for a “bump fire” stock. For that matter, I’ve no use for a fully auto weapon, personally. That doesn’t mean I’m against any law abiding person being able to own one. I do fear everyone jumping on the “ban bump stocks” band wagon.

    Does anyone trust our politicians (or, actually their staff) to be able to write narrow enough legislation to not endanger other “devices” such as short reset triggers and other modifications that give an edge in timed shooting competitions?

  36. We know how foolish “feel good” legislation will be when it comes to guns. It won’t work. Criminals always find a way around it, or simply ignore the laws. I think first-degree murder has been illegal for a long time, maybe 4,000 years or so.

    As has been pointed out, Stephen Paddock could have built bombs or used one of his two airplanes. Imagine filling an airplane with bombs, then diving kamikaze-style into that crowd. Such an attack would have killed more than 58 people.

    Conspiracy theories abound no matter what, but when the government seems to be holding back information, it makes people almost have to consider conspiracy theories. If the Islamic State turns out to be telling the truth about Paddock’s motive, and our government is lying about it, that will be a blow to the government’s credibility. After Watergate, no one believes the government anyway. Our future looks bleak.

    • From videos and eyewitness accounts I count at least 8 shooting positions and at least 7 shooters. I won’t be surprised if Paddock himself was not the only one at or near both broken 32nd floor windows.

  37. I wonder if the run on buying guns and ammo has begun yet. Whenever the gun-grabbers and MSM go on an anti-gun tear, sales jump through the roof. I bet the stock of Ruger, Smith & Wesson, etc. is already going up. I don’t own any gun company stocks directly. Maybe some of my mutual funds invest in them. I sure hope so as the antis have just insured a nice jump for the October 2017 market.

    Probably gun stores and on-line retailers are already selling out of these bump-fire stocks and other such devices. As I noted before, I don’t have any use for these things but I bet people are grabbing them before they get banned! 🙂

  38. I missed the intro that gave the source, but it appeared to be a CBS affiliate in Louisiana. They featured 3 previously anti-gun ladies, 2 grandmothers and one middle aged, who changed their minds after experiencing Katrina.

    The ladies are now all both 3 gun competitors, and shown competing, and big AR fans. Best of all, they were very articulate spokespersons and made excellent points. (I hope it isn’t sexist to note that they also had excellent personal appearance.) CBS deserves a rate attaboy. Of course, they followed this up in the next segment with a predicable rant by a presumably bigger name/market personality.

  39. There is much more to this event than we’ve been told, so far.
    Every second of this man’s movements (outside his hotel room) when on or near casino property, are on video, somewhere. Therefore, so are all his associations with other people who may or may not be involved.
    What is certain is that the conspiracy mill is in full turbo charged operation and spinning at top speed.

    Secondly, I heard a retired SEAL being interviewed the other day. He said the military has an acoustic device that, within less than a second can determine the origin of a rifle shot and pinpoint it’s location with a laser beam and, if so desired, direct immediate counter battery fire at it. From anything such as a rifle up to artillery or mortars. (think of how much confusion and BS could have been eliminated had this device been available in Dallas back in 1963).

    A couple of these set up at events like the Las Vegas venue might be helpful, but I doubt that would ever happen given any number of reasons I can think of right offhand.

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