Over this past weekend, our country experienced its worst modern day shooting. Stephen Paddock, a 64 year-old man opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, several hundred feet southwest of the concert grounds. Paddock shot over six hundred people. Fifty-nine have already been confirmed dead and many more are currently fighting for their lives. This shooting took place at 10:08 p.m. Sunday, at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, an outdoor country music concert held yearly in Las Vegas.

At the time of the shooting Jason Aldean was preforming. Aldean said, “I truly don’t understand why a person would want to take the life of another.”

“This world is becoming the kind of place I am afraid to raise my children in.” Aldean said in a social media post. A powerful statement coming from such an important public figure in this situation. Aldean, who has two daughters, is really planning on helping a movement to spread peace.

Paddock is believed to have acted alone in this massacre but we will not know all the details until further investigation is completed.  When the police finally pin pointed his location and breached the hotel room Paddock had already died. As of right now the cause of death is suicide.

The weapons Paddock used consisted of a wide range of very different types of guns. In the hotel room from which Paddock was shooting, police found twenty three guns and one hammer. These guns were actually all bought legally however some illegal modifications were made to them.

Paddock, modified two of the rifles he used in the shooting converting them to shoot 400-800 rounds a minute. Many people

believed he was using a fully automatic assault rifle, however, he put a bump fire stock on his guns. Fully automatic guns are extremely hard to acquire in the United States but anyone can buy a bump fire stock.