Because of the magnitude of this incident, there is no way that this blog post is the first time that you are hearing about the Las Vegas shooting. it has shaken Americans, prompting many conversations in every one of my high school classes as well as during my after school activities. Everyone is taking about this because it is so surreal. Nobody ever thought that someone would shoot at a crowd from a hotel building, or that so many guns would even be able to be brought into a hotel. It is so sad that there are people in America that want to hurt people for no reason and that they can do something like this.
When I heard about this attack, I was shocked and upset because while 59 people being killed is terrible, people need to remember that over 500 people also were shot because of this man. To imagine being in that venue is terrifying, and what is even scarier is that there are rumors that this man was planning to do the same thing at Lollapalooza, a festival that I attended all four days. The stage that he would have targeted is also the stage that myself and most other high school students from the north shore spend most of there time at, so there is almost no way that I would not have known someone who would have been affected by an attack on Lollapalooza.
To me, this is an opportunity for America to finally step up and follow all of the other developed countries and stop making it so easy to buy guns. We need to get all of these guns out of our country. Some people are saying that guns need to stay so that people can protect themselves, but regardless, nobody should have semi-automatic weapons, and nobody should have 33 guns, which is as many the Las Vegas shooter did.
Strict hotel security and stricter gun laws need to be put in place because it is only a mater of time before copy-cat shooters try to do the same thing that Paddock did to more people in different venues.
For instance, I think that people selling guns should never have been legally able to sell guns to Stephen Paddock based on his known Valium use. 'Rage, aggressiveness and irritability are among the possible side effects of taking diazepam -- better known as Valium, according to a manufacturer of the drug.'according to a CNN article. Even seemingly insignificant or circumstantial risk factors such as irritability, rage and aggressiveness should eliminate people from having access to guns no matter how low the chance is that they would actually hurt people. It is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to gun violence.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/las-vegas-shooter-booked-hotel-overlooking-lollapalooza-visited/story?id=50273390
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/09/us/las-vegas-stephen-paddock-deposition/index.html
