Within 48 hours of the music festival massacre in Las Vegas on Sunday, the worst mass shooting in US history, tour groups were back on the Strip in chauffeur-driven Humvees with ads for automatic rifles printed on the side.
Grinning tourists were pictured in the back of one of the vehicles which was laid on by Battlefield Vegas, a shooting range which offers group experiences including the SWAT package at $159 per person.
With every group package, customers are offered a free ride in the Humvee to and from the range which is less than four miles from where gunman Stephen Paddock slaughtered 59 people and injured 527 with a haul of semi-automatic guns on Sunday night.
As nightclubs closed their doors in a show of respect for the victims, Battlefield Vegas was still very much open for business on Tuesday.
A group of tourists are driven by staff from Battlefield Vegas in one of its Humvees which promotes ‘full auto’ guns on the side on Tuesday. The gun range was open for business on Tuesday less than 48 hours after the music festival massacre
It even sent a mobile billboard truck out with a flashing sign promoting the special of the day – $29 to fire an AK-47, one of the 23 weapons Paddock used to slaughter the crowds.
Before the shooting on Sunday, it advertised its newest outdoor experience – Basic Training.
Unlike many of the other local businesses which have pledged money to funds for to help the victims, it has offered no public comment on the atrocity at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
Staff declined to answer questions when contacted by DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in Sin City, couples posed for wedding photographs and beside its famous landmarks, seemingly oblivious to the floral and candle tributes which sat often at their feet.
Bars picked back up and pools were busy with holidaymakers eager to make the most of their vacation.
‘I feel like we kind of mourned yesterday. We were definitely a little down and just hung by the pool.
‘But this is Vegas,’ said Tre Marino, a landscaper from Asheville, North Carolina, said as he played shuffleboard with friends at a bar across from the MGM Grand hotel.
Most shows played as usual Tuesday night. That included magician Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller, who cancelled his Monday night performance at the Rio.
‘We took our show off last night to be respectful, but those people that were shot, they didn’t want the world to stop,’ Jillette said while donating platelets at a blood center.
The gun range is less than four miles from the hotel and concert venue, at the other end of the Las Vegas Strip
Battlefield Vegas in Las Vegas (above) is situated less than four miles from where the shooting occurred. The gun range was open on Tuesday
German newlyweds Ann and Sergei Reinchen pose next to the Las Vegas sign where tributes to the massacre’s victims lie after getting married
Elvis tribute artist Eddie Powers poses with another set of newlyweds – Rob and Kelly Roznowski – after marrying them on Tuesday
A group of tourists jump for joy to have their photograph taken next to the famous sign, paying little attention to the flower tributes left beneath it
Tourists take a selfie beneath the sign on Tuesday. Some holidaymakers said they felt they’d mourned on Monday but that by Tuesday, it was back to business as usual
‘Nobody wants the world to stop when there’s a tragedy. They want it to go on.’
The latest UFC pay-per-view will go on as scheduled Saturday night on the Strip, and the Los Angeles Lakers play a practice game in the same arena the next day.
Next Tuesday, the city’s first major league pro team starts home play. The NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights will be joined in a few years by the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders in a new $1.9 billion stadium just off the Strip.
The city will probably adopt some new restrictions on traffic into hotels and casinos. But just as the city rebounded from a 1980 fire at the MGM Grand that killed 85 people, leaders are already promising to come back from this.
It’s a place they hope will keep appealing to people like Larry and Mary Louise Sutherland, a couple from the small town of Picpou in Nova Scotia. They were sitting outside the New York-New York casino after spending the previous day in their hotel room because they were afraid to go out in the wake of the shooting.
‘This was on our bucket list,’ said Sutherland, an iron worker. ‘This place is amazing to us. We’re just from a little town and it’s all overwhelming.I feel for the victims. But we had to make the best of it,’ he said.
Others were more reluctant in their return to normalcy.
Among them was Celine Dion who wept: ‘I hope that you’re doing OK…before we start the show, I need to talk to your for a moment…I never start the show like this but tonight is very different.
‘For me it’s “Can I still do my show?” Should I still do my show only two days after the nightmare?”‘
There were still signs of the tragedy on the Strip. The MGM Grand placed this message outside its entrance
A group of women pray near the Mandalay Bay hotel which stands towering in the background
Others were seen kneeling and crying at makeshift memorial sites where flowers, candles and balloons have beenleft
Matt McLeod prays for the victims of the massacre beneath the sign on Tuesday afternoon
Jennifer Lopez canceled a string of shows that were due to begin on Wednesday out of respect for the victims. Ticketholders will be offered a refund or exchange to attend later dates.
‘Jennifer is heartbroken that such a senseless tragedy occurred. Her thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,’ a statement released on behalf of the star read.
There is a heightened police presence since the shooting, with police stationed outside almost every resort.
Hotels including the MGM Grand placed signs outside their gargantuan entrances offering their prayers for the victims.
Investigators are still working at the Route 91 Festival site where 59 were slaughtered. On Monday, they returned to the grim empty lot where the shooting took place
FBI lab technicians work at the scene of the massacre on Wednesday night
As the fun started back up again, there were still lines outside blood donation centers despite authorities insistence that they had enough.
The Mayor of Las Vegas vowed on Tuesday not to let the tragedy define the town which is adored and visited by millions every year.
‘We will not be defined by this sick, disgusting human being — I will never mention his name.
This was the scene at the empty lot where the festival was held on Monday afternoon. All of the bodies had been removed and officials were tasked with clearing up the litter and personal belongings which were thrown on the ground as the crowds fled
‘And I look to the sky to the new stars that are up there for each one of these beautiful innocent people who were slaughtered,’ Mayor Carolyn Goodman told NBC.
Authorities are yet to establish a firm motive for the mass slaughter. Paddock, 64, took his life before they could get to him inside the 32nd floor sniper’s nest he had made for himself.
Once inside, they found his arsenal of 23 weapons. Another 19 were found at his home in Mesquite, Nevada.
A picture of is however starting to emerge of how the gunman slipped into madness over the past several months.
He had a ferocious gambling appetite, sometimes spending up to $10,000 a day on video poker. His live-in girlfriend Marilou Danley, 62, is being questioned by the FBI. She worked in the gambling industry and was a ‘petite hostess’ when she met Paddock.
His brother described him as a ‘big fish’ – a wealthy gambler who’d made millions in through real estate investments.
The clean up is still underway at the empty lot of land where the Route 91 Harvest Festival had been set up.
On Monday, officials were pictured removing the bodies of those who were unable to escape in white bags.