Stephen Paddock (above) may have modified the firearms he used in his attack on Sunday night by adding a device that allowed them to fire faster
The lone gunman who massacred at last 58 people and injured another 515 after opening fire on a crowd of concertgoers in Las Vegas on Sunday night may have modified his weapons for maximum carnage.
Authorities have yet to share any details about the weapon suspected gunman Stephen Paddock, 64, used to carry out his attack or the 20 other rifles that were found in his room at the Mandalay Bay Resort, but eyewitness accounts and videos offer up some clues.
It is likely that Paddock was using either a machine gun or a military-style assault rifle given the number of bullets he was able to fire off with a single pull of the trigger and the distance which they were able to travel, with the victims located across a boulevard and 32 stories below the gunman.
Video of the attack also reveals that Paddock may have turned legally-purchased guns into illegal firearms with the addition of a simple and easy to obtain device.
The rapid but inconsistent rate of fire that can be heard on some of the videos suggests that something was attached to the gun which allowed it to fire off more bullets with each burst, discharging ammo from the weapon at a much higher rate than is permitted by law.
‘This suggests another possibility: that a weapon could have been modified to fire faster, a change to a semiautomatic firearms known as bump or slide fire,’ writes The New York Times.
‘Such modifications harness the recoil to allow for rapid fire.’
Had Paddock been in possession of an automatic weapon such as an M-16 or AK-47 the sound of the gunshots would have been more consistent and far less erratic.
He may have instead attached a device such as a hellfire to a semi-automatic weapon, allowing it to fire off more bullets at a far faster rate.
The hellfire can be purchased online for just $25 and fits a variety of firearms.
‘When firing commences the weapon will recoil and device is pressed against the trigger,’ reads the website advertising the device.
‘The tension arm in the device causes the gun to move forward again, causing the trigger to be pressed against the trigger finger again. The system utilizes the guns own recoil and inertia.’
That same website says that the hellfire is the perfect device for people who want to go ‘FULL AUTO SELECT FIRE’ but have been able to due to ‘red tape’ or ‘jail time.’
The addition of a device like this would mean that Paddock could take out the greatest numbers of victims, with his one-man slaughter now the deadliest massacre in modern US history.
It is still technically legal in that there is still only one bullet discharged per trigger pull, with the rate of pulls as opposed to the release of bullets being increased when the device is added to a weapon.
Gunman’s perch: These devices, such as a hellfire, can be easily bought online and added to an legally-purchased weapon to create an illegal firearm that harnesses the recoil (the blown out window’s of Paddock’s room in the hotel above)
Massacre: The weapon will then fire faster and discharge more bullets in each burst, allowing for the greatest possible damage (closer look at the blown out windows at Mandalay Bay)
Meanwhile, the audio recorded from in and around the scene on Sunday makes it clear that Paddock likely had no military training, something his brother Eric had stressed on Monday in interviews.
There were not ‘brief, controlled bursts of fire’ from the gunman’s weapon during the attack but rather ‘extended bursts.’
Those men and women who have been trained in the military know that ‘extended bursts’ can cause the weapon to ‘overheat’ and make it ‘difficult to control.’
Paddock did not need to be that great a shot thanks to the weapons he was able to obtain and possible modifications he made, which allowed him to easily fire off thousands of bullets into a crowd of 22,000 people who were over 400 yards away from him at the time.
The congestion meant that each bullet had a good chance of hitting someone below, with paddock having had almost four full days to plan out his attack after arriving at the Mandalay Bay Resort last Thursday.
His corner room on the 32nd floor also gave him a variety of angles to take aim at concertgoers, with the retired accountant shooting out two windows in his room.
Paddock also had no problem obtaining the ammunition he needed for the attack thanks to Nevada state law, which does not limit ammunition magazine capacities.
It is not known how many of the weapons Paddock used that were on his possession, with the frequent gambler taking his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot just moments before a SWAT team was able to break down the door and gain access to his room.