Stephen Paddock assembled his own weapons to use against 40,000 concert-goers in Las Vegas. He carefully staked out a room at the Mandalay Bay hotel, so he would overlook his kill zone. He planned his assault, knowing Las Vegas as an area resident and professional gambler. He blended in because he was known in the casinos as a customer of some value.
Paddock owned two homes, two airplanes, which he, as a pilot, could have used to crash into the concert venue, taking out more than 50 people and himself, and he had resources. He had no run-ins with police, and lived an otherwise normal life. But he had turned evil and used his skills, and his resources to kill others.
The left would have us believe that if Paddock had no access to buy guns (reports say he had dozens of them in his room) and ammunition, he would not have been able to complete his deadly deed. That’s ludicrous. Tell that to the victims of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik in San Bernardino. They used a “straw buyer” or a third-party to buy weapons. In Sandy Hook, Adam Lanza stole his mother’s gun.
You see, evil will find a way to complete its grim plan. Gun control won’t solve that problem because it’s not a gun problem, it’s a soul problem.
Gun control hasn’t stopped Chicago from having over 500 murders so far in 2017–most of them using handguns or even rifles. It hasn’t stopped other cities like Baltimore and Washington D.C. from having terrible violence. Laws against fully automatic weapons didn’t stop Stephen Paddock from modifying his AR-15s to fire on full automatic. Maybe they jammed and he had to switch rifles–but he had enough to deal with that possibility.
These attacks will continue despite Democrats in Congress, and Hillary Clinton calling for commissions, gun control, and opposition to the NRA.

Reports

Mandalay Bay Shooter Shot Semi-Automatic AR-15s Illegally Converted to Full-Auto – The Truth About Guns

“Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock bought more than 30 weapons and had more than a dozen stashed in his hotel room as he carried out the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history,” foxnews.com reports. “The deadly cache included converted, fully automatic AR-15 style assault rifles with high capacity magazines. The weaponry suggests Paddock passed numerous FBI background checks, according to a law enforcement source.”  Paddock had machine guns in two calibers . . .

.308 and .223 caliber. As you might expect, Fox’s description of the two calibers’ relative terminal performance leaves something to be desired . . .

Seth Moulton boycotts moment of silence for Las Vegas victims: Now is the ‘time for action’ – Washington Times

Rep. Seth Moulton announced he is boycotting a moment of silence on the House floor for victims of Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas as a protest against Congress’ inaction on gun control.

“I will not be standing with my colleagues in a moment of silence that just becomes an excuse for inaction in the House of Representatives today,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a video statement Monday. “I will work to do something about this problem so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Senate Democrats: Congress needs to ‘get off its ass’ on gun control after Las Vegas shooting

“This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in a statement Monday. “There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.”

Nancy Pelosi demands commission to study gun violence – Washington Times

Reaching for a political solution after Sunday night’s horrific shooting in Las Vegas, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for a new special select congressional committee to combat gun violence.

Leftists Blame NRA For Las Vegas Tragedy

That doesn’t even touch on the massive expense of buying a legal full-auto firearm following the 1986 machine gun ban. Weapons like that run tens of thousands of dollars, which means that alone keeps them out of most folks’ hands.

But that won’t stop the anti-gun left.

Analysis

You don’t hear Democrats calling for commissions and impetuous action until there’s a mass shooting. But there’s a mass shooting every two or three weeks in Chicago, spread out over dozens of murders, sometimes with double-digit death counts in a single weekend.
You don’t hear them calling for gun control in Chicago because there already is gun control in Chicago. But the criminals already have guns.
It’s politically impossible for Democrats to repeal the Second Amendment, yet they talk like it can be done. The Supreme Court struck down Washington D.C.’s handgun ban, and two years later, when Chicago refused to submit to the Court’s will, they struck down Chicago’s ban, specifically. Yet the murders continue in Chicago. Are they really going to blame Nevada’s less restrictive gun laws (or Georgia’s, or Vermont’s for that matter) for Chicago’s gun murders?
All the arguments in the world about why citizens should not have a certain type of gun fail because they’re arguing the wrong thing. A U-Haul truck can be a weapon; or a truckload of fertilizer; or a minivan; or an airplane. Should we ban everything that could potentially be used as a weapon because it could be turned to evil? Our founding fathers intended, specifically, that the citizens of the United States should not have our right to own firearms infringed by the government. This isn’t because guns are wonderful things–they are deadly.
It’s precisely because they’re deadly, and serve as a check against the government’s infringing, or denying, other sacred rights, and imposing tyranny upon the people, that the founding fathers wanted us to have them. It’s because liberty means trusting the citizens with the means to self-defense, period. Liberty also means that some people will be evil.

The Takeaway

The solution to evil isn’t found under a dome where legislators meet. It’s found under a steeple, or in a synagogue, or even a mosque, where congregants worship. It’s found in the deep connection of neighbors to each other, instead of their iPhones. It’s found in the values shared by Americans from generation to generation. Those are the values that progressives want to detach from our culture as “bigoted” or “hateful.” Yet evil flourishes when they are absent.
In reality, there is no permanent solution to evil apart from a heavenly one. Christians believe this is the soon return of Jesus Christ. But while we’re here, waiting, we should practice what He taught–and what the Talmud teaches. Love your neighbor. Take care to be good to others and not judge them by their politics. And when evil comes, offer a hand and a hug, not a boycott and more laws.
We can outlaw evil all we want, but the lawbreakers will still commit it. Democrats who don’t get that, are either being willfully ignorant in their quest for political power, or they’re genuinely confused as to the true nature of fallen humanity. Either way, their solutions never work.