Gun stores across America are selling out of ‘bump-stocks’, which were used by the Las Vegas shooter in order to make a semi automatic gun fire as fast as a machine gun.
Some retailers like Walmart and Cabela’s banned the sale of bump stocks following the massacre, others however, couldn’t fend off the demand.
At least six online gun retailers have sold out of bump stocks this week alone and Slide Fire, a Texas-based company, issued a statement to customers after selling out of the devices in a single day, saying:
We have decided to temporarily suspend taking new orders in order to provide the best service with those already placed.
Others, like Bump Fire Systems took to Facebook to say its website couldn’t handle the amount of traffic:
Currently our servers are down due to high traffic volume. Please be patient, our IT Dept is currently working on the issue as fast as possible
Stephen Paddock shot dead 59 people and injured hundreds more last Sunday in Las Vegas before turning the gun on himself.
He had stationed himself in the Mandalay Bay hotel nearby the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
The 64-year-old had previously set his sights on Lollapalooza in Chicago, with TMZ reporting, Paddock had booked 2 rooms in the Blackstone Hotel – which overlooks Grant Park – the venue of the outdoor festival.
As seen in the picture above, Paddock had booked one room for August 1, 2017 – 2 days prior to the first day of Lollapalooza – and then another for his arrival on August 3 with his checkout being on the final day of the festival, on August 6.
The Blackstone directly overlooks the main stage as well as a smattering of others and perhaps the bleakest part of its location, is the fact festival-goers would have little option to escape thanks to the river.
Sources told TMZ neither Paddock nor his girlfriend have ever booked a room at the hotel before.
Las Vegas police said at a press briefing they believe Paddock intended to flee the scene after his attack and he may have had help.
Asked ‘Did you see any evidence that he planned to survive this, or try to escape’ Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo simply replied ‘Yes’, adding:
Do you think he accomplished all this on his own? You’ve got to make the assumption he had help at some point.
Or maybe he’s a superguy who’s working this all out on his own.
It’s emerged Paddock rented a room through Airbnb which overlooked the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas, one week prior to the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
His girlfriend, Marilou Danley, issued a statement after returning from the Philippines and spending time with FBI agents who were trying to figure out Paddock’s motives, which read:
He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.
It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone.
Danely described her boyfriend as a ‘kind, caring, quiet man’ – she’d been out of the country for over two weeks at the time of the mass shooting – the deadliest in modern US history.
Various reasons, including enormous gambling debts and relationship problems with some pointing toward a ‘troubled family background’ as being a contributing factor in Paddock’s unknown motivations.
His father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, was a notorious and ‘psychopathic’ bank robber who was on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list between 1969 and 1977, report The Independent.
Details of his firearms, which have been revealed by authorities, included a majority of rifles and at least one handgun.
All the firearms were bought legally, at local stores, after the shooter passed all the required background checks to own the guns.
Paddock had modified a number of the rifles with tripods and scopes to increase their accuracy.
Isis have tried to claim responsibility for the shooting, describing Paddock as being a ‘soldier for the caliphate’, however, the FBI have stated this is categorically not the case and as yet no evidence has been revealed to back up the claim.
Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by this tragedy.
