{"id":120909,"date":"2020-03-15T13:37:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-15T17:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=120909"},"modified":"2020-03-15T13:37:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T09:52:41","slug":"the-heart-of-darkness-stephen-paddock-and-the-las-vegas-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-heart-of-darkness-stephen-paddock-and-the-las-vegas-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of Darkness: Stephen Paddock and the Las Vegas Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is based on the official storyline given by the government and the media. It is accurate as to that version of events. However, this may or may not be what actually transpired. Regardless of what gun enthusiasts and professionals believe happened, didn’t happen, or who was responsible, the outcome was the same; bump stocks were banned, Americans lost freedom, gained no safety, and the inanimate object blamed was removed from the purview of law-abiding Americans. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Adolph Hitler is frequently considered the most horrible person ever to have lived. I would assert that the Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock might give him a run for his money. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whose was the most dysfunctional psychopathic personality in human history? Hitler was certainly a contender. That guy was so evil as to have become an archetype. However, at least Adolph had a purpose of sorts. As twisted as it was der Fuehrer had a goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Stephen Paddock apparently committed mass murder just to fill the void where his soul was supposed to be. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not so much with Stephen\nPaddock. Paddock was simply an ink-hearted monster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Origin\nStory<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Stephen\u2019s Paddock\u2019s childhood was predictably chaotic and sad. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Paddock was born\nin April of 1953, the oldest son of Benjamin Paddock who was himself on the\nFBI\u2019s Ten Most Wanted list for a time. As seems to always be the case,\nStephen\u2019s childhood was broken and tragic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Stephen Paddock\u2019s dad Benjamin was a career criminal. The official FBI wanted poster described the elder Paddock as a psychopath. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stephen\u2019s dad Benjamin was\narrested for bank robbery in 1960 when Stephen was seven years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock had a knack for business and accumulated a modest fortune through legitimate means. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For all his many manifest faults, Stephen Paddock was a fairly adroit businessman. After stints with the US Postal Service and the IRS, he acquired several real estate holdings that made him a fair amount of money, more than $5 million over time. He also maintained an annual income of around $500,000. His principal weakness, however, was high stakes gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Like the monster he was, Stephen Paddock preferred the dark to the light. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Paddock\u2019s game of\nchoice was video poker, which he preferred to play alone. He would play\nthroughout the night, preferring to sleep vampire-like during the day. Paddock\nopenly disliked being in the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock\u2019s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, admitted to police that she had helped Paddock load his magazines. Her fingerprints were indeed found on some of the spent cartridge cases. She was, however, ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock was married twice but had no children and remained on good terms with his ex-wives. He traveled widely and maintained a private pilot\u2019s license along with a pair of small planes. In the last decade of his life, he went on twenty different international cruises, many of them with his Filipino girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dissecting\nthe Monster<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Paddock apparently subscribed to a few outlandish Internet-based conspiracy theories but was otherwise fairly unremarkable. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Those who knew him well\ndescribed Stephen Paddock as an atheist without any serious political\nconvictions. He drank heavily, many times in the morning, and regularly took\nthe anti-anxiety medication Valium. He seemed despondent and might have lost a\nsubstantial sum gambling, though this has never been definitively established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Shooting is usually a fairly social undertaking, but Paddock apparently did not make any friends at local ranges. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the year leading up to the infamous October 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Paddock purchased 55 firearms along with large quantities of ammunition. Two days before the massacre he was captured on a home surveillance system driving out into the desert to practice. Regular shooters in the areas where he lived never saw him socializing with other firearms enthusiasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock had explored several other open-air targets, some as far afield as Boston, before settling on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. He chose his two rooms carefully to maximize his vantage. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks before the assault, Paddock sent his girlfriend back to her native Philippines with $100,000 to purchase a home. He was later seen with a prostitute. Six days before the shooting, Paddock checked into a pair of rooms in the Mandalay Bay Casino overlooking the site of the upcoming Route 91 Harvest country music festival. On the final day of the event, there were more than 22,000 people in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nShooting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Jesus Campos was a security guard at Mandalay Bay who happened upon Paddock\u2019s crime in progress. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At around 10 pm an unarmed security guard named Jesus Campos was dispatched to investigate an open door alert in the vicinity of Paddock\u2019s two suites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Campos\u2019 first inclination that something was amiss was his discovery that this door had been secured via a screw-in steel bracket. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Upon arrival, Campos found that a door on the 32d floor had been secured shut with an L-shaped bracket screwed into the frame. After reporting his findings he heard the sound of further drilling and went to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock\u2019s preparations included this video camera affixed to the peephole of his door and fed into his laptop. The room service cart equipped with another camera can be seen through the open door. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock had planned his\noperation exhaustively over a period of months. He had arranged a baby monitor\nin the hallway on a room service cart to maintain surveillance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
When Paddock\u2019s improvised surveillance system informed him of approaching security he peppered the hotel room door with rifle fire. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At roughly 10:05 as Jesus Campos approached his rooms, Paddock fired roughly 35 rounds through the door. Campos took a bullet to the thigh but thought he had been hit by a pellet gun. At this point, hotel staff notified the Las Vegas Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Police found these ballistic calculations among the detritus of the shooting. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock broke out the\nwindows to his suite with a hammer and opened fire on the unsuspecting\nconcert-goers below. Officers later found accurate graphical depictions of the\nrange to the concert venue along with estimates of ballistic performance of his\nweapons and appropriate target holdovers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The volume of fire Paddock launched from his perch was simply breathtaking. He used the hammer seen in this picture to break out the window glass. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the next ten minutes, Stephen Paddock fired more than 1,100 rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This is the view from Paddock\u2019s firing point. Everything about the situation was carefully crafted well in advance. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock launched eight\nrounds toward the large above-ground fuel tank located some 600 meters away at\nMcCarran International Airport. Two rounds connected with the tank, but only\none penetrated. As jet fuel is predominantly kerosene and unlikely to ignite\nfrom such an insult, nothing further came of that effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
This is an image of Stephen Paddock\u2019s killing zone. The numbers represent the locations of his victims. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The average range to his victims was around 450 meters. A security fence surrounding the venue prevented the crowd from escaping. In the chaos of the moment, it was impossible to determine the source of the fire. The end result was tragic beyond words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock shot himself roughly ten minutes after firing the first round. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ten minutes after the\ncarnage began it abruptly stopped. The first Law Enforcement officers arrived outside\nhis room at around 10:12, but immediately thereafter the suite went quiet. At\n11:20 SWAT teams breached the rooms with explosive charges and found Paddock\ndead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound through his mouth. One member of the\nbreach team inadvertently triggered a three-round burst during the assault, but\nno one was harmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Stephen Paddock\u2019s meticulously planned attack was the worst American mass shooting on record. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

58 people died as a direct result of the assault, 36 women and 22 men. The ages of the victims ranged from 20 to 67. 869 concert-goers were injured, some 413 via gunshot wounds or shrapnel. Stephen Paddock\u2019s methodical attack was the largest mass shooting committed by a single individual in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGuns<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
It took Paddock multiple trips over several days to get his weapons positioned. At times hotel staff helped him with his heavy black bags. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The police discovered 24\nfirearms in Paddock\u2019s hotel room. He had ferried the cased weapons and support\nequipment up in several sorties, at times assisted by hotel staff. The room was\nlittered with dozens of magazines to include several Surefire 100-round boxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock\u2019s two hotel rooms were absolutely littered with guns. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fourteen of his weapons were\n.223-caliber AR15-type semiautomatic rifles. There were two each from FN,\nDaniel Defense, LWRC International, and POF-USA, as well as three by Colt. A\nsingle example from Noveske, Christensen Arms, and LMT were recovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock\u2019s sole handgun was a Smith and Wesson .38-caliber Airweight revolver. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock also had eight\n.308-caliber AR10 rifles along with a .308 Ruger bolt action and a Smith and\nWesson Model 342 .38-caliber revolver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Paddock\u2019s AR10 rifles were configured for precision shooting. All of his AR15\u2019s featured bump stocks. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock\u2019s AR10\u2019s were equipped with bipods and high-end telescopic sights. His AR15\u2019s included forward handgrips and bump-fire stocks. As Paddock had no criminal history, all of his weapons were legally purchased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Stephen Paddock accumulated his arsenal despite some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock procured his guns\nfrom lawful sources in Nevada, Texas, Utah, and California. This means he had\npassed the most stringent background checks in the nation. Law officers later\nfound ammonium nitrate, another 1,600 rounds of ammunition, and fifty pounds of\nTannerite in his Hyundai Tucson SUV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nDreaded Bump Stock<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
In the aftermath of this horrific attack the American people needed a villain, and we settled upon the bump stock. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In tragedy folks naturally\nwant something to hate. As the shooter took his own wretched life, that\nsomething became bump stocks. A bump stock is a simple contrivance that appears\nat first brush to be an oversized rifle stock. A bump stock incorporates a\nmechanism that allows the rifle so mounted to reciprocate slightly as it fires.\nBy applying forward pressure to the gun and allowing recoil to disengage the\ntrigger these devices will produce the equivalent of automatic fire at the semiautomatic\nweapon\u2019s theoretical cyclic rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Now that bump stocks have been reclassified as machineguns almost none of them have been surrendered to the government. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bump stocks are not particularly accurate, but they can be quite reliable in experienced hands. In the aftermath of the attack, the BATF controversially reclassified bump stocks as post-86 machineguns and demanded they be surrendered to the government. Estimates of the number of bump stocks already in circulation range from 280,000 to 520,000. As these devices were previously unregulated the exact number will never be known. As of this writing 680 of the stocks had actually been voluntarily abandoned to the BATF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruminations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Stephen Paddock\u2019s degree of premeditation was simply mind-numbing. He bodged together this contraption using scuba components in an apparent effort at rendering himself immune to tear gas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After an exhaustive investigation, Law Enforcement officials admitted that they had no idea what drove Stephen Paddock to do what he did. Researchers at Stanford University dissected his brain and reported it as grossly normal. Paddock had an obsession with cleanliness and potentially suffered from bipolar disorder. However, he refused to take psychotropic medications with the exception of Valium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Despite his profound emotional dysfunction, there is no evidence of Stephen Paddock ever having been formally diagnosed with mental illness. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Psychologists who have\nevaluated his life retrospectively suspect Paddock exhibited alexithymia. This\nis a sub-clinical construct that involves an inability to identify or describe\nemotions within one\u2019s self or others. While this trait is common among mass\nmurderers alexithymia is not formally classified as a mental disorder.\nAlexithymia can be found in roughly ten percent of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
We all hurt over horrible stories like this. However, trying to prevent such tragedies by regulating the tools is a fool\u2019s errand. This improvised contrivance using a length of string is at least as effective as Paddock\u2019s bump stocks at increasing the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For those of us who\nunderstand firearms the reclassification of bump stocks as machineguns is\nsimply asinine. The determined miscreant can accomplish the same end with a\nlength of string and a Kalashnikov, Mini-14, or M1 Carbine. With more than a\nyear to plan a guy of Stephen Paddock\u2019s abilities and resources could have\nacquired a modest milling machine, taught himself to use it, and crafted his\nweapons from scratch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Stephen Paddock planned his crime for months, applying his obviously prodigious intellect toward the dark mission of pitiless mass murder. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For now, we simply have to wonder what exactly broke within this craptastic loser\u2019s brain that made him shoot 471 innocent people attending a country music concert. In addition to his obvious personality defects, computer forensics investigators also found hundreds of images of child pornography on his laptop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Stephen Paddock was the purest sort of darkness. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It appears Stephen Paddock was the ultimate unstoppable monster. Godless, soulless, emotionless, twisted, evil, and empty, Stephen Paddock was one of the most repugnant human beings ever to have drawn breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears Stephen Paddock was the ultimate unstoppable monster. Godless, soulless, emotionless, twisted, evil, and empty, Stephen Paddock was one of the most repugnant human beings ever to have drawn breath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":120938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[257,772],"tags":[132,102,752,1965],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-120909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-historical-guns","8":"category-will-dabbs","9":"tag-buzz","10":"tag-feature-articles","11":"tag-historical-guns","12":"tag-mass-shooting"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Heart of Darkness: Stephen Paddock and the Las Vegas Massacre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Heart of Darkness: Stephen Paddock and the Las Vegas Massacre - Will Dabbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-heart-of-darkness-stephen-paddock-and-the-las-vegas-massacre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Heart of Darkness: Stephen Paddock and the Las Vegas Massacre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It appears Stephen Paddock was the ultimate unstoppable monster. 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