On Sunday night a lone gunman on floor 32 of a Las Vegas hotel rained rapid fire shots of an automatic weapon onto the crowd of an outdoor music festival. This act of terror left at least 59 dead and injuring 527 and sending thousands fleeing for cover in one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history.
Not long after the attack had concluded police issued a search for Marilou Danley, a rumoured partner of the gunman that had been traveling with him who reportedly warned those on the ground that ‘people were going to die tonight’. In terms of the supposed gunman himself:
Stephen Paddock age 64 from Mesquite, Nevada reportedly killed himself before police reached him and had no known connection to terrorism. He was described by family members and neighbors as a wealthy high stakes gambler. Police say Paddock had no significant criminal history and drew little attention to himself leading up to the events that took place. Despite this, he has been seen at Anti Trump rallies protesting which may imply that his intentions were politically motivated considering the number of white conservatives that attend country music festivals. Paddock was a massive fan of Rachel Maddow. Below is a picture of him that has reportedly emerged from his Facebook page before it was taken down; as you can see he is wearing the trademark ‘pussy hat’ which is a symbol of the left.
The General Manager of a gun shop named Guns & Guitars, Christopher Sullivan told authorities that he sold Paddock three guns at his shop including a handgun and two rifles over the course of a year.
“The man does not have a criminal history,” Sullivan said concerning Paddock.
While concrete information is now known, during the hours surrounding the attack a wave of misinformation stemming from sites such as 4chan polluted much of the internet early on suppressing the true information. This information labeled the killer to be 76-year-old Geary Danley whose picture was often shown on the internet alongside a list of his Facebook likes consisting of far-left media outlets. The amount of misinformation was so heavily layered on front pages of news and social media sites that anyone could have been misguided in their assessment of the media.
Later Monday, conversations began to flare up concerning the status of gun laws in America. Even though this has become a topic of discussion again, it is not likely that this event will change the basis of firearm legislation.
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