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Donald Trump says lawmakers will discuss gun control 'as time goes by' Donald Trump says lawmakers will discuss gun control 'as time goes by'
(35 minutes later)
Donald Trump said the US would talk about gun control “as time goes by” on Tuesday, one day after a man killed 59 people and wounded hundreds of others in Las Vegas in the worst mass shooting in recent US history. Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that the time for a national debate on guns would come at some point in the future, after a lone shooter with an extensive arsenal turned a country music festival on the Las Vegas strip into a warzone, leaving 59 people dead and at least 527 more injured.
The White House has resisted calls to consider new gun laws, calling the idea “premature”. Republicans in Congress, set to loosen rules on silencers, delayed their plans. “We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes on,” Trump told reporters outside the White House as he prepared to fly to storm-damaged Puerto Rico. He offered no further details. When asked about legislation winding its way through Congress that would make it easier for people to buy gun silencers, Trump said: “We’ll talk about that later.”
Before departing for Puerto Rico on Tuesday, the president broached the shooting. “What happened in Las Vegas is in many ways a miracle,” he said. “The police department has done such an incredible job, and we’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”
Although police have not described the shooter’s mental health at all, the president called him “a sick man, a demented man, a lot of problems, I guess”.Although police have not described the shooter’s mental health at all, the president called him “a sick man, a demented man, a lot of problems, I guess”.
“We’re looking into him very, very seriously. We’re dealing with a very, very sick individual.” Trump said: “We’re looking into him very, very seriously. We’re dealing with a very very sick individual.
Trump planned to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday. “What happened in Las Vegas is in many was a miracle. The police department has done such an incredible job, and we’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”
In a response that has become a ritual, Democrats demanded lawmakers take action on gun control measures they believe will prevent – or at least reduce the number of casualties – of a future mass shooting, while Republicans blamed them for politicizing the moment. Despite the increase in mass shootings in recent years and the easy availability of weapons due to the second amendment to the US constitution, even minor attempts at gun control have proven political impossible in Congress. Lawmakers came closest to making substantial change after 20 children and six adults were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, but legislation was defeated after campaigns by the NRA and pro-gun Republicans.
After 49 people were killed by a gunman in an Orlando nightclub last year, Republicans blocked measures to ban people on the federal terrorism watch list from buying weapons and to close background-check loopholes.
As Las Vegas began to recover from the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, lawmakers in Washington are once again engaging in the grim ritual of sending “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of a mass shooting.
While Democrats amplified their calls for congressional action on gun control measures that they believe will prevent – or at least reduce the number of casualties – of a future mass shooting, Republicans blamed them for politicizing the moment, arguing that mental health – not firearms – is the underlying factor in such deaths.
“We cannot banish evil or madness from the earth. But we must do what is within our power to make our country a safer place to live. We need common-sense reforms,” Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said in a floor speech on Tuesday. He called on Trump to bring together congressional leaders to address the “epidemic that costs the lives of more than 30,000 Americans a year”.
Republicans dismissed Democrats’ calls for action, saying that now was a time for “unity”.
House speaker Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in Congress, said mental health reform is crucial to preventing future mass shootings.
Ryan said: “It’s important that as we see the dust settle and we see what was behind some of these tragedies, that mental health reform is a critical ingredient to making sure that we can try and prevent some of these things from happening in the past.”
Beside him on the podium was majority whip Steve Scalise, who returned to Congress this week after being shot at a morning baseball practice in June.
On Monday, Democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, where 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, forcefully denounced his colleagues “cowardice to act” and implored Congress to “get off its ass and do something”.
In a floor speech later that evening, Murphy said: “We have become normalized and regularized to 50 people losing their lives. This is a uniquely American problem.
“The hurt is deep, the scars are wide in Newtown, but they are made wider by the fact that this body, in four and a half years, has done absolutely nothing to reduce the likelihood of another mass shooting. There’s an unintentional endorsement that gets sent to these mass murderers when after slaughter after slaughter, Congress does nothing.”
Authorities are still searching for a motive for the murders committed by Stephen Paddock, 64, who orchestrated the attack from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
Paddock had amassed an arsenal of more than 40 weapons, 23 of which were recovered from the hotel room where police found him dead, according to Las Vegas police. Police said Paddock used multiple rifles during the attack and transported 10 suitcases into his hotel room during his stay there.
Officials told the Associated Press that Paddock also had two “bump stocks” that can be used to modify weapons to make them fully automatic.
In pursuit of the gunmen, police scoured the hotel floor by floor before reaching the luxury suite where Paddock was stationed. Paddock fired through the hotel room door, striking a security guard in the leg. Swat officers stormed into room after the guard – who is expected to recover – was shot. There they found Paddock dead, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.
Police said they retrieved 19 firearms plus explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition from Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nevada, a town near the border with Arizona.
In Las Vegas, victims arrived in droves to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, one of many hospitals that were overflowing.In Las Vegas, victims arrived in droves to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, one of many hospitals that were overflowing.
“I have no idea who I operated on,” said Dr Jay Coates, a trauma surgeon whose hospital took in many of the wounded after gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from his 32nd-floor hotel suite Sunday night on a country music concert below. “They were coming in so fast, we were taking care of bodies. We were just trying to keep people from dying.” “I have no idea who I operated on,” said Dr Jay Coates, a trauma surgeon. “They were coming in so fast, we were taking care of bodies. We were just trying to keep people from dying.”
He told AP: “Every bed was full. We had people in the hallways, people outside and more people coming in.”He told AP: “Every bed was full. We had people in the hallways, people outside and more people coming in.”
He said the huge, horrifying wounds on his operating table told him this shooting was something different. He said the huge, horrifying wounds on his operating table told him this shooting was something different. “It was very clear that the first patient I took back and operated on that this was a high-powered weapon,” Coates said. “This wasn’t a normal street weapon. This was something that did a lot of damage when it entered the body cavity.”
“It was very clear that the first patient I took back and operated on that this was a high-powered weapon,” Coates said. “This wasn’t a normal street weapon. This was something that did a lot of damage when it entered the body cavity.”
The gunman, 64-year-old high-stakes gambler and retired accountant Stephen Paddock, killed himself as authorities stormed his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino.
He had 23 guns some with scopes in the room where he had been staying since Thursday. He knocked out two windows to create sniper’s perches he used to rain what may have been automatic weapons fire on the crowd of 22,000 some 500 yards away.
He also had two “bump stocks” that can be used to modify weapons to make them fully automatic, according to two US officials briefed by law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.
At Paddock’s home, authorities found 19 more guns, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Also, several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be turned into explosives, were in his car, authorities said.
The FBI discounted the possibility of international terrorism, even after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. But beyond that, the motive remained a mystery, with Sheriff Joseph Lombardo saying: “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath at this point.”
While Paddock appeared to have no criminal history, his father was a bank robber who was on the FBI’s most-wanted list in the 1960s.
“I can’t even make something up,” his brother in Florida, Eric Paddock, said when asked what might have motivated his brother. “There’s just nothing.”
His muzzle flashes visible in the dark, Paddock began shooting just after 10pm and appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes, according to radio traffic, as police frantically tried to locate him.
“We can’t worry about the victims,” an officer said over the radio at 10.15 pm “We need to stop the shooter before we have more victims. Anybody have eyes on him ... stop the shooter.”
The crowd, funneled tightly into a wide-open space, had little cover and no easy way to escape. Victims fell to the ground, while others fled in panic. Some hid behind concession stands or crawled under parked cars.
Faces were etched with shock and confusion, and people wept and wailed. Some of the injured were hit by shrapnel. Others were trampled or were injured jumping fences.
“It was chaos people just running for their lives. People trying to get down. Trying to get to their loved ones that had gotten hit,” Shaun Topper said.
Marie Langer, 16, of Las Vegas, got to the concert early so she could get to the very front, closest to the stage.
That meant she and her friends were among the last to get out, and could hear shots ringing and people screaming the entire time she was trying to flee. She finally had to climb a fence with points on the top of metal bars designed to prevent people from getting over it.
“We had no other option,” she said.
Tales of heroism and compassion emerged: One man grasped the hand of a dying stranger, unable to pull himself away despite the danger. Another borrowed a flannel shirt from a man he didn’t know to create a tourniquet for a girl he didn’t know.
Couples held hands as they ran. The healthy carried the bleeding off the grounds. Strangers drove victims to hospitals in their own cars.
Authorities put out a call for blood donations and set up a hotline to report missing people and speed the identification of the dead and wounded. They also opened a “family reunification center” for people to find loved ones.
Before Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history took place in June 2016, when a gunman who professed support for Muslim extremist groups opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people.
The Associated Press contributed to this reportThe Associated Press contributed to this report