As politicians and talk show hosts waste no time in politicizing what has become the worst mass shooting in US history, leaving 59 dead and over 500 wounded, everyone else is asking the same question of “why did this happen?”
Stephen Paddock, age 64, was by all reports an “average joe” who made his fortune on real estate investments and was enjoying retirement by taking up professional gambling. One might assume Paddock’s gambling had something to do with his decision to murder innocent civilians, yet Paddock’s brother reports that he was largely successful in his gambling endeavors and had just recently won a $40,000 jackpot.
His brother Eric Paddock said Stephen Paddock was a multimillionaire and recently won a $40,000 jackpot.
“He was a wealthy guy who lived to play video poker,” Eric Paddock said. “He could do anything he wanted. He played multi-hundred-dollar-hand video poker.”
Although authorities have not yet determined a motive behind the shooter’s actions, new photos released may help start putting together the pieces of Stephen Paddock’s mindset.
The picture below shows Paddock’s feet with black loafers and two firearms, both with bipods and scopes mounted on them. On the table there appears to be a roll of green tape placed on top of a piece of paper, although any writing on the paper is unable to be seen in the photo.
Below is an enlarged version of the photo, centering in on the possible note. The black and silver object to the left of the paper could possibly be a very large writing instrument with its cap appearing as the black cone-shaped object to the right of the paper.
Although authorities have thus far been hesitant to speculate or release any possible motivations of the shooter, if this image indeed shows a handwritten note it could crack the case in the coming days.
There are also reports that Stephen Paddock may have filmed himself during the act of firing his weapons at the unsuspecting crowd of concert-goers, according to the New York Post.
Las Vegas madman Stephen Paddock set up a camera inside his hotel room to capture his deadly shooting rampage — and other surveillance in the hallway to alert him as cops closed in on him, according to reports.
The shooter had at least one lens set up to tape himself as he unleashed hell on thousands of unsuspecting concertgoers several hundred yards below his ritzy casino suite, according to ABC News.
Apparently knowing cops would eventually catch up to him, he also wired cameras in the hallway outside his room so he could see when the heat was getting close, the Daily Mail reported.
Additional photos show a slew of firearms spread across Paddock’s hotel room with various modifications.
Earlier today, pictures began circulating of the guns that Stephen Paddock used during the shooting, with one of the weapons featuring a “bump stock” to simulate the effects of firing an automatic weapon.
“Bump-firing” is a technique whereby a shooter pulls a firearm forward into a stationary trigger finger. The recoil from firing sends the firearm rearward while the forward pull brings it back into contact with the trigger finger thereby firing the rifle again. “Bump-fire stocks” effectively replace a gun’s standard stock, with a mechanism that aids in allowing the rifle to slide back and forth behind a stable trigger finger.
This means the weapon itself was a legal, semi-automatic firearm that simply had an attachment to allow the user to fire rounds more rapidly.
The pictures of the shooter’s hotel room show only a fraction of the reported 23 firearms found in Paddock’s hotel room, which leads to the question, why would the shooter go through the trouble of transporting 23 firearms to his 32nd floor hotel room if he only intended to utilize a handful of them at most?
Unfortunately, there are still more questions than answers at this point. However, there is no mystery behind the Democrat’s objective of politicizing this horrific shooting to further their agenda and using it to their maximum advantage.