According to the brother of the Las Vegas mass murderer, when Stephen Paddock moved to the area just over a year ago, he brought with him “maybe a couple of handguns.” If that’s accurate, then he assembled an astounding arsenal in an amazingly short period of time.
In his 32nd-floor hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, police recovered 23 weapons, including a handgun, and multiple rifles -- some had scopes on them. Authorities also found several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a material used to make explosives, in his car.
Police also searched the gunman's home in Mesquite, Nevada, where they found at least 19 firearms, explosives, several thousand rounds of ammunition and some electronic devices.
That’s 42 guns. Even if Paddock’s brother missed a few when packing up for the move, it seems that he bought at three dozen guns in the space of a year. Two of those weapons, a rifle and a shotgun, were purchased from a Las Vegas area gun dealer. An unknown number came from a gun dealer in Mesquite, where Paddock had his home.
Christopher Sullivan, general manager of Guns & Guitars, did not say what weapons Paddock, who lived in Mesquite, had bought.
"All necessary background checks and procedures were followed, as required by local, state, and federal law. He never gave any indication or reason to believe he was unstable or unfit at any time," Sullivan said in a statement.
It appears that Paddock may have purchased guns from at least three other area shops, as well as visiting local ranges. If each of those shops sold Paddock only one or two weapons, it’s easy to understand that none of them might have seen anything unusual. But neither did the FBI.
And that’s by design.
Paddock may have made some of his purchases at gun shows. In Las Vegas, that would be simple, as such shows are held almost every week.
But maybe not. As the Brady Campaign puts it …
When an individual goes to a retailer to purchase a firearm, the retailer contacts the FBI to run a background check on each gun purchaser. The FBI checks the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to see if they are a prohibited purchaser. Prohibited purchasers include felons, fugitives, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill. Simply put, the effective Brady Law prevents guns from getting into the hands of dangerous people.
The first two sentences of that statement are true. Or, almost true, as Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year lifting most considerations of mental illness from background checks. Still background checks, when the information is right, should prevent people with a criminal history from buying a gun from a dealer. And … that’s it.
The number of background checks that are run on someone, is not a factor in determining the results of a background check. If someone passes the check once, they’ll pass it again. And again. And again. Ad inifinitum.
Paddock appears to have visited a number of different gun shops, but that was likely so that he raised no suspicion from the owners and workers at those shops. Likewise, he appears to have visited a number of ranges, some of which were very likely to have fully automatic weapons. Even if Paddock didn’t purchase such a weapon from them, he would have had the opportunity to train in their use.
The only place that would have had the knowledge that he was compiling an arsenal would be the FBI. Only that wasn’t possible. Just ask the NRA.
Currently, the FBI is not permitted to retain records on persons who pass NICS checks.
That’s because the NRA regards allowing the FBI to keep records on background checks are akin to registration. In fact, they’ve fought hard to demonize the idea.
In 2009, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced legislation, co-sponsored by handgun and “assault weapon” ban advocate Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), proposing that the FBI retain such records for 180 days.
That legislation did not pass. So background checks are made … then they’re thrown away. The number of such requests someone makes can’t be a factor in determining if they pass, because the system forgets they asked before. On purpose. Because the last thing gun manufacturers want to do is raise a flag over someone buying a lot of guns—that’s good behavior so far as they’re concerned.
Right now it’s perfectly correct for someone to say that background checks would not have stopped the shooting in Las Vegas. They didn’t. Because they’re purposely broken.
