Police Recover 42 Guns in Shooter's Hotel Room and Home
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Authorities in Las Vegas have recovered a shocking number of weapons from the home and hotel room of the killer, 23 guns in his hotel room, another 19 found at his home. Several thousands rounds of ammunition and explosives. How did he get them and how was he able to make them even more deadly? Joining us now is retired ATF special agent Sam Rabadi. Sam, thanks so much for being here. I want to play just a few seconds of the sound of the gunfire that people caught on their cell phones because I want you then to share your theory on what you're hearing. So, listen to this.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. When experts have analyzed that, Sam, they hear 90 shots in 10 seconds. Clearly, that's an automatic weapon. Correct?</s>SAM RABADI, RETIRED ATF SPECIAL AGENT: Yes. From the sound on the video clip, I think most folks who are involved in this kind of line of work will be able to tell you that is absolutely fully automatic fire.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. But authorities have not found an automatic weapon. I mean, the latest working theory is that he turned his regular rifle into an automatic weapon. And, look, I'm very skittish about having this conversation on TV because, obviously, we don't want to give people a how-to, but it sounds like it's pretty easy to do that. Can you explain if it's easy to convert a rifle into -- a semi-automatic into a fully automatic?</s>RABADI: Sure. Well, there are a number of ways to do it. In terms of fully automatic fire, there are some accessories that are available on the market, such as a bump fire stock or a slide fire. That is an accessory that can be used to modify a weapon like an AR-15 to allow it to fire in rapid succession or automatic fire.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, Sam, hold on a second. I just want to stop you right there.</s>RABADI: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: So, automatic weapons are not legal, but the accessory to turn a semi automatic into an automatic is legal?</s>RABADI: The accessory itself is legal and can be purchased online or from a manufacturer directly. It is perfectly legal by definition.</s>CAMEROTA: Sam, Sam, how is that possible? How -- why would it ever be legal for regular civilians to be able to turn their rifle into an automatic weapon, when automatic weapons are banned?</s>RABADI: Well, the automatic weapons themselves are banned. In this particular case, the accessory is nothing -- nothing about it makes it illegal in terms of what it does to the actual firearm, to modify, whether it's the trigger mechanism or some other feature like a drop- in that makes it fully automatic. What this particular accessory does, it uses the gun's own inertia to go or slide, if you will, back and forth to allow the firing of the weapon at a rapid succession.</s>CAMEROTA: But, Sam, my question is, how is that logical? How is it logical? Clearly, we've accepted that automatic weapons are much more deadly. They cause the kind of carnage they saw in Las Vegas. So, why is this accessory legal?</s>RABADI: Well, by federal law, this particular accessory is perfectly legal. The National Firearms Act clearly specifies what constitutes a fully automatic weapon or machine gun is more of the common term that is used. Probably back -- way back when, in 1934 when the original act was enacted.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>RABADI: And in the '80s when it was modified again, these types of accessories did not exist. And, you know, as technology has come through in the last number of years, I believe the original authors of the act probably did not envision this kind of accessory being used for modifications of this sort.</s>CAMEROTA: Well, there you go. Listen, you've done this for a living. You devoted your life to making sure that weapons were safe and keeping them out of the hands of the wrong people. If Congress does nothing else, do you think that they should ban these accessories from being available online?</s>RABADI: You know, that's a tough question, Alisyn, because there are a number of sportsmen who like to use these types of accessories to use their weapons so they can target practice. Throughout my career, I've been doing this 29 years. And our intent, whether it's federal law enforcement or state local partners, is always going after the illegal possessors of the guns. And what they can do. And it's not just your criminal out there, who can cause all sorts of problems on the street with this type of weapon. Unfortunately, and as perhaps as is the case in this situation, is somebody with some form of mental illness. You know --</s>CAMEROTA: Right. Look, of course, whatever was behind this guy, the idea that he could do this so easily, why would you be reluctant to say that these accessories shouldn't be in the hands of regular people?</s>RABADI: No, there's no reluctance on my part. It's more as to the way the law is written. This is something that Congress would have to go back and take a look at. The law itself, the technical language of the law, and whether something like this type of accessory should be made available to the public.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>RABADI: You know, that's more for our folks up on the Hill, to be able to take a look at something like this. But, clearly, clearly, something like this is sort of a workaround the federal law as it relates to automatic weapons and something is probably should be taken a look at as we go forward.</s>CAMEROTA: Sam Rabadi, thank you very much for coming on with your expertise in this. Fifty-nine people --</s>RABADI: Thank you, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: -- were killed, at least 527 injured. These are staggering numbers. We have a live report from the hospital with a majority of the wounded were taken. We will get an update next as we remember these victims of the attack.