I guess we don't yet know why, but it once again feels like we have much more to fear from white people living within our borders than from brown ones trying to get here.  No info on his religious affiliation, but I'm guessing he's not Muslim.

But here's the thing. America is the only wealthy country not subjected to endemic civil conflict or invasion which regularly endures these sorts of mass firearms massacres. We're the only place in the western world where anything remotely like this happens not just occasionally but on a regularly recurring basis. Are we okay with that? Because speaking for myself only, I'm certainly not.

I'll tell you one thing, though, that I'll do personally as both a Democrat and a party official. As of today, I will not support ANY Democratic legislative or congressional candidate who takes money from the NRA.

I don't care if you're otherwise great on women's rights or children's education or the environment or whatever. If you as a candidate take money from an NRA gun lobby that advocates for the unfettered right of domestic anarchists to amass potent arsenals of deadly weaponry, at the ultimate expense of public safety and everyone else's own collective peace of mind, you're not only off my list, I'll actively work against you.

FACT: More Americans died in Las Vegas last night at the hands of one gun-toting crackpot (59), than died during the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the Revolutionary War at the hands of an entire British infantry regiment (49). That should be unacceptable. But it won't be 'cause, y'know, freedom, y'all.

And what do we do with the millions of guns already in the hands of Americans? Australia implemented a full gun ban after a shootout between the Bandidos and Comancheros. But it also came with a culture change.

Our history and entertainment is full of gunslingers from the old west to modern TV and movies. How do you get change with that being so pervasive.

My own views have changed over time. At one time I belonged to the NRA and was a full 2nd Amendment rights guy with no conditions. I owned an assault rifle about a month once. Realized it was silly, and sold it. I quit the NRA years ago. Mostly thanks to Wayne LaPierre and nearly daily deluge of mail begging for a donation.

That said, I own guns. I have all my adult life. Not a lot. But more than 2. I'm a homeowner, am older, now physically handicapped to a degree, so a handgun is a bit of an equalizer. I take road trips to casinos. Carry a lot of cash sometimes. I always have a handgun in those instances. So I am not anti gun.

But I do know what is happening is wrong. And it has to change. Somehow, we have to change the conversation and above all, change the culture that embraces firearms so easily.

Our own police shoot us down in the streets. That has become their go to solution. That feeds this gun culture.

One official said Paddock had a camera mounted in the room, apparently to record himself.

my assertion has always been:

• he used a rifle with a bump-stock or similar device
  
• we need to ban bump-stocks

He was a nocturnal creature who gambled all night and slept all day.
He took Valium at times for anxiousness, and had the doctor who prescribed it to him on retainer.
He wagered up to a million dollars a night, but wandered around glitzy Las Vegas casinos in sweatpants and flip-flops, and carried his own drink into the high rollers' area because he didn't want to tip the waitresses too much.