The Morning Briefing: Day Two of the Las Vegas Massacre and Much, Much More

Good Tuesday morning.

Here is what’s on the President’s agenda today:

In the morning, President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will depart the White House for Joint Base Andrews, en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and will receive a briefing on Hurricane Maria relief efforts.
The President and the First Lady will then visit with individuals impacted by Hurricane Maria.
Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will meet with Governor Kenneth Mapp of the US Virgin Islands.
The President and the First Lady will then participate in a briefing with senior military personnel, Governor Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico, and Governor Kenneth Mapp of the US Virgin Islands.
Later, the President and the First Lady will participate in a greeting with the Navy and Marine Corps.
In the evening, the President and the First Lady will depart San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Washington, D.C., en route to the White House.

What we know about the Las Vegas massacre

More than 24 hours later, we have more information about the maniac who killed at least 59 people and injured over 500. The shooter was Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man who lived in Mesquite, Nevada, a small retirement-type community outside Las Vegas. The Reno Gazette-Journal has information about Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who is currently out of the country. Law enforcement reported Paddock had property in Reno, Nevada, and sent a SWAT team to investigate his home up north. Police have not determined a motive yet, but there is speculation the shooter had large gambling debt. Paddock’s brother reports the murderer was not violent, he was not a “gun person,” had no military experience, was not religious or political. Paddock’s father was on the FBI’s most wanted list for bank robbery.

Law enforcement found explosives, ammunition, and numerous firearms in his home and in his car. Twenty-three firearms were found in his hotel room and a “modified bump stock rifle was also found, which allows a gun to simulate rapid automatic gunfire. Law enforcement officials are still in the process of examining firearms to determine if they were capable of firing automatically.” Politico reports two of the guns were modified with bump stocks. Other reports say some of the guns were modified to be fully automatic (illegal). We still do not know if there were fully automatic weapons and if those were legally purchased and licensed. Sean Davis at The Federalist has a helpful piece explaining the (very difficult process) of purchasing a machine gun.

Paddock took more than 10 suitcases into his hotel room. The New York Post reports that Paddock shot at security and a SWAT team through his door, before he took his own life.

Parade of the jackasses

As with any gun tragedy, the ghouls emerged quickly to score some political points in the media and on Twitter and Facebook.

First up, we have this moron from NBC:

Been a journo for a while now. It has become impossible to report just, "facts" about gun violence. The fact is America needs gun control.

— Cal Perry (@CalNBC) October 2, 2017

That is, in fact, not a fact. We don’t even know how Paddock acquired his weapons, legally or illegally, whether he illegally modified his weapons, or if he bought all his weapons at once or acquired them over time — so why would we rush to have a conversation about “solutions” if we don’t know exactly what the “problem” is? People are demanding “gun control” but they never offer any specifics. (This crowd also hates the police, but is perfectly cool with having the police and government with more firepower than the population. Go figure.) What law would have prevented Paddock, who had no criminal history or other disqualifying features, from purchasing his handgun?

Gabby Giffords and husband quickly ran for the camera. Hillary Clinton opened up her lie-hole.

A CBS executive was fired after posting on Facebook that she had “no sympathy” for the victims because they were “Republican gun toters.” I bet she’s not the only one to hold this opinion at CBS, just the only one too dumb enough to write it online.

And of course, no roundup would be complete without a mention of the late-night hosts and Hollywood idiots.

We should disregard any “advice” from gun-ignorant lefties and rich “stars” who live in secured, gated communities and travel with a security force. They aren’t interested in having a good-faith discussion about this horrible mass shooting event’ they are only interested in virtue signaling and imposing their political agenda on us — low-life “Republican gun-toters.”

Some good news

Law enforcement reported that Vegas locals turned out to give blood to the point where the wait was 6-8 hours. At least $2 million has been raised to help with relief efforts.

Here’s your picture/tweet of the day:

Here is a chart of American gun ownership and American murder rate. Please explain how more guns inevitably means more murder. pic.twitter.com/TVOJZe2BTi

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 3, 2017