Names of Las Vegas victims emerge as police reveal gun stockpile – as it happened

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The US is at a defining moment on guns, argues Shannon Watts founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

In an opinion piece for the Guardian she asks: “Do we want to keep experiencing these horrific shooting tragedies because the gun lobby has convinced Congress that we should allow guns for anyone, anywhere, any time – no questions asked? Or will we demand safety in our daily lives – at church, school, concerts and movie theaters?”

As we grieve the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas, we must start talking openly and honestly about how to solve our nation’s gun violence crisis. For Congress, that means demanding they reject National Rifle Association leaders’ radical and deadly agenda. In Nevada, that means elected officials enforcing the law their constituents enacted last November.

Doing what we’ve been doing for decades – essentially letting the gun lobby write our country’s gun laws – has led to America having the highest rate of gun homicides of any developed nation. Clearly it’s time to do exactly the opposite of what gun lobbyists have instructed us to do: use our voices and votes to save lives. We can’t be silent anymore.

3 Oct 201709.32 EDT

Ashifa Kassam

Broadcasters in Canada have confirmed the identity of a third Canadian killed in the attack as Calla Medig, of Jasper Alberta.

“My heart is numb knowing such a tragedy struck our small community,” Tessa Mac of Jasper said in a Faceook post. “Heaven is an even brighter place now that they have you Calla.”

CBC spoke to Las Vegas bartender, Heather Gooze, who spent five hours by the side of Canadian Jordan McIldoon before he died from his gunshot wounds. She used his phone to break the news to his girlfriend and speak to his parents. “I couldn’t just leave him by himself,” she said.

Jessica Klymchuk of Valleyview, Alberta was also killed in the attack.

• At least 59 people have been killed and 527 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. The victims so far identified included an off-duty Las Vegas policeman, a San Diego lawyer, and three Canadians.
• Police have named Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant from Mesquite, Nevada, as the gunman.
• Police found an arsenal of 42 firearms, explosives and thousands of ammunition rounds in both his Las Vegas hotel room and Mesquite home.
• Experts believe an accessory known as a bump-stock was probably used in the attack. It modifies a semi-automatic weapon to fire at an automatic rate.
  
• There is still no known motive behind the attack, or any known links between Paddock and other organisations.
• The suspect’s girlfriend was named as a person of interest, but police said he acted alone and that authorities would interview the woman after she returned from a trip to Tokyo.
• Survivors of previous mass shootings and late night chat show hosts have expressed outrage at the inability of US politicians to control guns and stand up to the powerful National Rifle Association. Theresa May said the UK could not understand US gun laws.
• Donald Trump has deferred questions about gun control saying “We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.” Speaking to reporters he described Paddock as “very sick” and “demented”.
• Jason Aldean, the country music singer who was performing at the time of the attack, says it highlighted a “scary” change in the US and the world. In a new post on Instagram he said: “Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see.”
• Hoaxes and fake news spread rapidly online, in some cases with boosts from Facebook and Google algorithms.

3 Oct 201708.59 EDT

Lois Beckett

Last November, Nevada voters narrowly approved a new gun control law that would have required private sellers to conduct the same criminal background check on buyers that licensed gun dealers already use. Closing the loophole was one of the lone bright spots for gun control advocates in an election that put the National Rifle Association’s chosen candidate, Donald Trump, in the White House.

But Nevada’s new gun law has never been enforced. Days before it was slated to go into effect, the state’s Republican attorney general released a legal opinion concluding that citizens were “excused from compliance”, calling the new law unenforceable ...

Enforcing Nevada’s new background check law may not have made any difference to how easily the perpetrator of Sunday’s attack on a country music concert was able to stockpile dozens of guns.

Law enforcement officials have said Stephen Paddock had no serious criminal record, which would likely mean that a background check would not have flagged him as unfit to purchase a gun. At least one gun store in Mesquite, Nevada, where Paddock lived, confirmed that it had sold him several guns legally, and that he had passed a background check. But Nevada’s new law, if it had been enforced, might have provided another paper trail to help law enforcement track down the sources of some of Paddock’s other guns.

Donald Trump deferred questions about gun laws as he headed for a trip to Puerto Rico. Asked about the issue he told reporters: “We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”

Pressed on the matter before boarding a helicopter, Trump added: “We’ll deal with that later”.

Asked if the shooting was an act of domestic terrorism, Trump said: “He was a sick man, a demented a man. A lot of problems, I guess, and we’re looking into him very very seriously. But we are dealing with a very very sick individual.”

Stephen Paddock’s home town of Mesquite, Nevada is a place that caters to firearms enthusiasts.

New guns can be bought at the local Walmart superstore, and there are a wide array of secondhand weapons on sale at a nearby pawn shop. If residents want to target-shoot in the desert, they need only drive about 10 minutes away, down a dirt track across the Arizona border, and visit the Smoking Gun Club range.

Still, Mesquite, which is dotted with casinos, golf courses and RVs, appears to be more of a haven for gambling-obsessed retirees than gun fanatics. While the streets were largely empty Monday, casinos were packed full of retirees playing slot machines.

Paddock and a woman identified as his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62, lived in Sun City, an exclusive community for retirees, where some residents zip around the quiet, palm-tree-studded streets on golf carts.

The house is in a prime spot in the community: high on a plateau, it has vistas overlooking the city and a neat, well-tended front-yard filled with cactuses and desert bushes.

Police were seen searching the home on Monday.

“This is a 55-and-over community,” said Tom Jennings, a 71-year-old neighbor who lives in Prominence Village, the name the subdistrict where Paddock lived. “People go to bed here at 8pm.”

Jennings said he had never interacted with Paddock but he was known in the neighborhood as “a very normal, everyday, guy”. “But isn’t that the way it always is?” he said. “These guys seem normal and then you wake up one morning and ... this.”

Jason Aldean, the country music singer who was performing at the time of the attack, says the mass shooting highlighted a “scary” change in the US and the world.

In a new post on Instagram he called for unity in response to the attack.

Over the last 24 hrs I have gone through lots of emotions. Scared, Anger, Heartache, Compassion and many others. I truly don’t understand why a person would want to take the life of another. Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see. This world is becoming the kind of place I am afraid to raise my children in. At the end of the day we aren’t Democrats or Republicans, Whites or Blacks, Men or Women. We are all humans and we are all Americans and its time to start acting like it and stand together as ONE! That is the only way we will ever get this country to be better than it has ever been, but we have a long way to go and we have to start now. My heart aches for the Victims and their families of this senseless act. I am so sorry for the hurt and pain everyone is feeling right now and there are no words I can say to to take that pain away. Just know you all are in my heart and my prayers as we all go through this together. Time to come together and stop the hate!

Donald Trump has tweeted about his pride in the US in his latest update since the mass shooting.

The president didn’t mention Las Vegas but his message appears to continue a theme from his White House remarks on Monday when he said: “In moments of tragedy and horror Americans come together as one. It always has.”

He also described the shooting as “an act of pure evil”.

Trump is due to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday after a trip to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico on Tuesday.

The Economist has a grim graph showing how the Las Vegas mass shooting is the worst in modern US history.

Jennifer Irvine, a San Diego lawyer who was attending the country music festival, has been named as one of the victims.

Her publicist and friends confirmed she was one of at least 59 people killed by Paddock.

Jay Jones, Irvine’s publicist told NBC, that Irvine was a smart, charming and driven person.

Writing on Facebook, her colleague Thomas Slattery wrote:

My good friend, colleague, and business partner Jennifer Irvine was killed by a madman at the festival in Las Vegas. A tragic loss of a kind, generous, and beautiful lady. She will be greatly missed.

At least 17 other victims have also been identified.

• At least 59 people have been killed and 527 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
• Police have named Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old from Mesquite, Nevada, as the gunman.
• Police found an arsenal of 42 firearms, explosives and thousands of ammunition rounds in both his Las Vegas hotel room and Mesquite home.
• Experts believe an accessory known as a bump-stock was probably used in the attack. It modifies a semi-automatic weapon to fire at an automatic rate.
  
• There is still no known motive behind the attack, or any known links between Paddock and other organisations.
• The suspect’s girlfriend was named as a person of interest, but police said he acted alone and that authorities would interview the woman after she returned from a trip to Tokyo.
  
• President Donald Trump said he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday and called the shooting “an act of pure evil”.
• Late night chat show hosts in the US have expressed outrage at the inability of US politicians to control guns and stand up to the powerful National Rifle Association. Theresa May said the UK could not understand US gun laws.
• Hoaxes and fake news spread rapidly online, in some cases with boosts from Facebook and Google algorithms.

Murrell Sailers gave a vivid description of trying to shelter from the shots. Speaking to AP, he said: “You could just hear the rounds almost like creeping up on you. Doosh, doosh, doosh. It feels like hunting you down.”