Posted on 10/02/2017 8:58:36 AM PDT by doug from upland
Opinion is divided this morning on Twitter among people who, unlike me, know more than the most basic basics about firearms. It’s not a matter of mere curiosity; as you (should) know, fully automatic weapons have been illegal in the U.S. for decades, which is why even mass shooters hellbent on murder unto death never use them. If Stephen Paddock used a machine gun, how on earth did he get it?
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
This surprises me. Like I said, I don’t travel; but it would seem to me that these days, a venue like Vegas - which holds so many large-crowd events - might be concerned about just this kind of thing.
The border is still wide open. Mexico is awash in full auto weapons. You can buy a truckload of coke, method, heroin or 10 yr olds why not some auto rifles?
Hotel and parking lot cameras will reveal how he brought the in....they’ll be able to follow all his steps....
His wife was hotel personal though they are saying she’s abroad doesn’t mean she wasn’t aware....or had connections inside to smuggle the weapons in. The shooter had enough money to own two planes....money talks!
Yes.
Lol this reminds me of the time we were in a live fire exercise. Night fire exercise, four squads, 2 SMAWs (one on each end), inside of them 2-M249 SAWS, inside of them 2 M16 w/M203 grenade launchers, the rest with M16s.
I was directing the fire and it was fire until you couldn’t fire anymore quite a light show. Up to the point I’m in the prone next to the SAW watching a PFC go at it and his barrel is glowing red. I smacked his Kevlar helmet so hard I know it rattled his brain screaming CEASE FIRE Marine!!!!
That was an automatic.
The cyclic rate sounded more like an AK than an AR.
Per a 2016 ATF FOIA response, there are just under 500,000 registered privately-owned full-autos in the US. Only 175,000 are transferrable pre-86 (or pre-68 import).
So we’re talking about a fraction of a percent of privately owned guns.
Agree, full auto.
He apparently had 8 different weapons, with mags/drums. He wasn’t firing controlled bursts because he was using it as an area weapon - firing from an elevated position into a crowd. For him, volume of fire was more important than accuracy. He had multiple weapons to prevent overheating/malfunctions from emptying mags/drums at the cyclic rate.
A couple of points:
1. He could have modified a rifle to fire full-automatic. Most people with basic mechanical skills could probably figure that out.
2. He could have been “bump firing,” you can clean out a 30 round mag in a couple of seconds by doing that. I don’t know if the steady fire rate indicated that, however.
3. He could have stolen a machine gun from one of the full-auto ranges, but I suspect those are locked up pretty tightly.
Also, at the distance he was firing, about 1700 feet, it would have been difficult to make aimed shots, a 600 yard (1800 foot) range is considered expert, and I’d guess impossible to make aimed shots with an automatic weapon. The sheer number of killed and wounded in that amount of time, assuming most were shot, rather than trampled or injured trying to escape, indicates just a lot of rounds fired at groups of people.
It’s a terrible situation, and had been planned for at least weeks, if not months. The shooter likely had knowledge of the event, and may have chosen it for a particular reason.
I saw a legal M60 in a gun store for $5,000 ... in 1981.
On reflection, this makes sense. If he knows he only has x minutes until cops kick down his door, then expend maximum number of rounds in shortest time. At 6-700 yards, given he is a hunter and has some shooting experience, he could control fire sufficiently to keep his shots in that box.
Total auto. Not even bump-fire stocks can run this smoothly.
Probably a home-conversion from semiauto.
That was my very first thought when I heard the first recorded sound from the shooting: That thing sounds full auto -— how in the world would a shooter get hold of that?!?
***Admit it: you’ve never shot a semiautomatic rifle, have you? Never done a mag dump before? ***
I’ve been shooting semi-auto rifles since 1966. done full auto in the military.1966-1969. fired thousands of round since then.
Still got several, yet never shot so fast to git a barrel red hot.
What seems to have happened is that the spray killed 50+ and hit an unknown number. Similarly, in the panic an unknown number but lots were injured in the panic stampede.
It will be sorted out from the ER records. My take is that 500 or so were not actually gunshot wounded.
No. I assume that you are saying he can move his trigger finger at full auto speed for continuous prolonged bursts over 15 minutes or so?
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