I would be interested to know if a rifle bullet can be used to set off a jet fuel (kerosene?) explosion reliably.
mythbusters could not replicate setting off a car (gasoline) explosion using a bullet:
if the answer is that it is difficult, then that might help answer the question of whether there was expert terrorist collaboration involved. i think it would be unlikely that expert terrorists would invest so much effort in a plan that did not have a reasonably high expectation of success, if for no other reason than that their action would likely to result in making future targets more terrorist-resistant to the particular manner of the attack. this would imply that the guy was more of an amateur, DIY type of “lone nut.”
also i wonder how much protection (such as double lining, etc) jet fuel tanks already have. if i had to guess, i would imagine that they are already terrorist-resistant to a significant degree by code and/or convention, since one can often find such tanks near airports and so they are a relatively obvious target.
i think there were two problems with the shooting where improvements could be made.
1. holding concerts away from tall buildings whose upper floors are open to the general public, so as to give potential terrorists less opportunity to stake out such high ground for a surprise attack on large groups of innocent civilians.
2. better crowd dispersal in the presence of a terrorist attack: multiple points of exit that can be opened by security guards at the first sign of an attack; and well and reliably lighted large emergency signs that illuminate the exits in case of attack to direct event attendees to the exits in an orderly manner.
I have not been religiously following the matter but i have not seen such improvements being mentioned in coverage so far— to date, all i have seen are discussions on whether or not there is enough gun control.
Realistically Las Vegas and some other cities have been reasonably obvious targets for terrorists to hit ever since 9/11.
one other thing about the nature of the suspect which was mentioned on fox this evening is that the guy had lots of assault rifles (and i hope i am using the term correctly; my apologies if not, since i am not an expert on any of this stuff). some counterterrorist experts interviewed said that the reason the guy had so many weapons was that he expected jams, and the easiest way to deal with a jam is to set the weapon aside and use a different weapon. they said that jams were likely under the circumstances of the shooting due to overheating and expansion of the parts, and that some weapons were found to be jammed by authorities. they said that an expert would be able to deal with jams and continue using the same weapon. an open question here imho would be how could an overheated weapon be unjammed and returned to fully functional. iirc the only way to deal with a machine gun whose barrel was overheated by too much use is either to wait until it cooled down or to use, in the design, a water jacket with a pump.
Question remains and I’ve yet to hear:
Where was security overwatch for an open aired event?
Parades, marathons, etc in any major city all have security overwatch, here we have major city, transient city, prime terrorist target for tourism, has open air concert, not in a venue, with thousands of people outside. Where’s the guys with binos and counter snipers? It’s not brain surgery to watch all elevated positions for an attack.