Where are the thousands of spent shells and why aren’t they scattered all over the hotel room?
“Where are the thousands of spent shells and why aren’t they scattered all over the hotel room?”
Forum members would be well-advised to abandon their attitude of “I know what I know and that’s that.”
First, this event, while horrifying, was not some monumental feat of marksmanship within the abilities of only some secret SOCOM super-soldier. Range from firing point to target area was about twice point blank (if artillerists still use that term): only slightly more challenging than clearing a room with a submachine gun.
Second, a semester of college-level instruction is not needed, to operate an AR-15-type rifle. The greenest of neophytes can learn the basics and become drilled to proficiency in less than an hour. Most of the rest of training on arms like these involves “long range marksmanship” (hold steady and squeeze), assembly and disassembly, stoppage reduction, field maintenance, coordination of fire and maneuver with squadmates, etc. None of which the perp needed, to do his foul deeds.
Third, firing an AR-15-style rifle is not physically demanding. Not even on full auto: it was designed and built that way on purpose. Besides that, endurance of recoil and chillingly precise ability in marksmanship doesn’t require the bench-pressing of 500 pounds, nor sprinting 100 meters in 15 seconds carrying full combat gear and a 75 kilo rucksack. I’ve watched slender little girls pick up firearms they can barely lift, soak up bone-jarring recoil from hot magnum loads, and score better than 250-pound he-men. Way, way better.
Fourth, I did see large numbers of empty cartridge cases lying around - in the few images that have leaked. They look like 5.56x45mm NATO cases, which are not very big. 1,000 live rounds can pack into a volume of less than one cubic foot. The weight of such a packgae is somewhat surprising, but still not terribly heavy.