pt 2 - a gun nut's assessment of vegas

the first videos i saw from the Las Vegas Massacre were all from the first few seconds...  

the gunfire was not normal

it was too steady, it was automatic, and it was way more than 30 rounds.

i believed it was a modified semi-automatic AK, made to fire automatically, and using drum magazines.

my reason was the steady fire, the reliability, and the amount of ammunition.

the news claimed it was 'bumpstocks' - but i've fired those, they are impossible to use consistently, you're basically attaching a spring to the back of the weapon and bouncing it off your shoulder to fire over and over again, while trying to hold on to the front - you become part of the automatic fire system.

but - i had only heard the first minute or less of gunfire - and my experience with bumpstocks is limited because they are so difficult that i didn't want to bother with them.

i have seen videos online of people shooting with a bumpstock and doing very well with it - but that takes time, you actually have to learn how to do that in a fashion that can be so constant... and at that point you're basically holding on to an explosion as it rattles you over and over again, you need to be in shape to hold that for 11 minutes!

so, i concluded it wasn't a bumpstock.

then a friend of mine who i believe is equally as informed as i am told me he thought it was a bumpstock - and that i should watch the 'cab driver video', so i did.

this video is 10min long and starts after the gunfire... and you have to go a few minutes into it before you start to hear the gunfire well.

the gunfire in that video is NOT constant, it does vary in speed, and it is in bursts... still not 3 round bursts, but the kind of bursts that take place when you're a 65 year old accountant trying to hold on to a tempest of explosions.

basically what i was hearing WAS bumpstock use... but i was hearing someone who had gotten tired after knowing how to use it very well at first.

i will stand by my original assessment now in this fashion:  this was not as simple as a mass shooting.

this was more bataclan than sandy hook.

this man wanted to create destruction, and we should all grasp the depth of that.

this 65 year old man took the time to equip many weapons in a fashion that is very difficult to use, then learn how to use that as best as possible.  then he prepared a dozen or more weapons to this capacity and learned how to use all of them.

news estimates claim his arsenal at the hotel and at home cost him over $100,000.00

i can tell you it took years to research, assemble, and test...  and HE DID IT WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING.  i havent heard anything more than records from 2 gun purchases, and i've heard nothing about testing at any gun ranges.

here's my point:  this was not as simple as 'we can pass some gun laws and this will never happen again' - no, we need to find a solution to people who perform outside the boundaries of law.

this man did all this without anyone noticing...  this man was a one man sleeper cell.

the simple will see this as gun violence.  they will be foolish and put this in the same category as a drug deal gone wrong where 6 are shot.  that's not what this was.

don't be simple, don't rattle around thinking that anything we do with gun control will control someone like this.  on some level, be happy that someone like this was lazy enough to choose guns.

as i said in my previous post - do not be lazy, do not be simple, so not approach this with the mentality that if he didn't have access to guns then it wouldn't have happened.  because this kind of person would have gone with a UHaul or a pressure cooker.

that's what we are fighting here, grasp it, and don't let your issues with street thugs and suburban madmen get confused with it.  

if you want to fight the NRA and the gun lobby, feel free... but don't do it because of this.  understand this person wasn't interested in shooting up some people, he wanted to create chaos.

and there is a massive difference.

to put all this together and manage to use it will took more effort than any of you can imagine.

i'm not sure how to solve this problem without eventually ending up in a police state, but i can say this:  the man was driven, he had the time, the money, and the talent... and if he had chosen another method like explosives under a hotel or sabotage of the Hoover Dam, this could actually have been much worse.