Deadliest mass shooting in US history


Mariana Cardoso, Reporter

     On October 1, 2017, gunman, Stephen Paddock fired at a large crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, leaving 58 people dead and 489 injured. The 64-year-old gunman from Mesquite, Nevada, fired hundreds of rifle rounds from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, where he was staying. After Paddock fired his last shot, he was found dead in his suite from a gunshot wound. His motive for the mass shooting is unknown. This incident is now the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the United States.

     This horrid event has since reignited debates about gun control. Mainly focusing on bump firing, a technique used by Paddock to allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a speed similar to a fully-automatic weapon. This made it accessible to fire rapidly at the crowd at the country festival. The Route 91 Harvest country music festival is located at the Las Vegas Village and has been since 2014. The venue is 450 meters away from the Mandalay Bay Hotel where Paddock was staying.

     “They need to control the use of arms so tragedies like this don’t happen again,” said Priscila Chavez (19).

     Inside Paddock’s room overlooking the festival a cache of 23 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found plus ingredients that are used in explosives. Also cameras were inside his room and hallway. Officers aren’t positive if the cameras were transmitting but it’s possible the shooter used them to watch anyone approaching his suite. He fired relentlessly for nine to 11 minutes at the country music festival. Victims are still recovering everything from gunshot wounds to stampede injuries causes when 22,000 people tried fleeing. As of right now police believe Paddock acted alone making the motive harder to determine.

     According to his family and girlfriend Paddock his violent transformation is as confusing as it is to the public. There wasn’t a way to know in order to prevent it and from current information there isn’t link to overseas terrorism or terror groups. Stephen Paddock was an avid gambler without a history of violence or a care for politics, religion, or pointy hatted people. Paddock’s family sent condolences to the victims.

     Paddock started shooting at about 10 pm while Jason Aldean was on stage. Concertgoers piled on top of each other as they tried getting out of aim. However, many off-duty nurses, doctors, paramedic cops and even normal citizens ran back into danger to help those who were hurt. People were holding people’s wounds shut, trying to help them while the rest were ducked down.

     Many strangers gathered to support victims by donating blood, money and supplies. A GoFundMe page for the victims had raised more than $8.1 million. More than 1000 Blood donors lined up for hours to help. People had also donated for flights, housing, food and transportation for relatives of the victims coming to Las Vegas.