Las Vegas. 10:08 pm. Jason Aldean’s muffled voice vibrates in room 32135 of the Mandalay Bay hotel, 64 year old Stephen Paddock, who is currently residing in the room shatters his window looking out over the Jason Aldean concert, the pieces of glass silently falling 32 stories to hit the ground with a sharp pop. The muzzle of one of Stephen’s 23 deadly firearms faces the joyous sea of 22,000 people, chanting Jason’s name. Here, at this horrible moment, he creates the biggest mass shooting in history, firing hundreds, thousands of bullets finding around 580 people, fatal for a stammering 59 people (CNN).
Stephen Paddock’s bullets traveled 400 yards to contact the crowd, he used semi-automatic weapons, which were all bought legally, with a bump-fire stock modification, allowing the gun to mimic an automatic weapon. Bump-fire modifications are completely legal, therefore allowing him to modify 12 of his firearms in this manner.
What could make such an ordinary man, a retired accountant with no kids, to his brother and girlfriend a calm reasonable man who would never hurt a fly, morph into a famous hated villain, or as some may call him, a monster is still unknown. But some people, including Heather Melton- the wife of Sonny Melton who died in her arms because of this monster’s work, “don’t care about his motive was because in [her] mind there’s no justifiable motive, reason, belief that could account for what he did” (CNN).
Some may argue Stephen Paddock is crazy, but he just may be quite brilliant, at least in terms of covering up his tracks. Nobody really knows anything from Stephen Paddock’s last 10 years. He has no kids, a girlfriend and his brother but they are it, and even they didn’t have a lot of interaction with him (New York Times).
This tragic event will be remembered forever, this has affected so many families, changed so many people’s lives it is borderline unfathomable. What makes people do these things is always a question, along with the ever haunting wonder if there is such an event that can happen to someone to make such a disaster understandable. May god forever be in our hearts.
Citations
Wagner, Meg, et al. “Las Vegas Shooting: Live Updates.” CNN, Cable News Network, 3 Oct. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooting-live/.
Times, The New York. “Las Vegas Shooting: Coroner Identifies Gunman’s Victims.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/us/las-vegas-shooting.html.