After the Las Vegas Strip shooting, the U.S. gun lobby, which has seldom embraced new firearms-control measures, voiced a readiness on Thursday to restrict a rifle accessory that enabled a Las Vegas gunman to strafe a crowd with bursts of sustained heavy fire as if from an automatic weapon.
Police have said the shooter, Stephen Paddock, equipped 12 of his weapons with so-called bump-stock devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to operate as if they were fully automatic machine guns, which are otherwise outlawed in the United States.
The influential National Rifle Association, which staunchly opposed moves to tighten gun control laws following the Orlando massacre and others, said on Thursday that bump stocks, which remain legal, “should be subject to additional regulations”.
Senior Republicans also signaled they were ready to deal with the sale of bump stocks – an accessories gun control advocates regard as work-arounds to bans on machine-guns.
Democrats were already urging new legislation, as the shooting reignited the long-standing U.S. debate over regulation of gun ownership, protected under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. President Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of gun rights during his campaign for the White House, suggested he was open to curbs on bump stocks. Asked while talking to reporters if they should be banned, he replied: “We’ll be looking into that over the next short period of time.”
Investigators, meanwhile, remained puzzled at what drove Paddock, a well-off retiree and avid gambler, to assemble an arsenal of nearly 50 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a supply of explosives before opening fire on a country music festival attended by 20,000 people.
Reports emerged on Thursday that Paddock may have targeted other sites for attack in Chicago or Boston.
Paddock also researched locations in Boston, including Fenway Park, the baseball stadium in Major League Baseball, NBC reported, citing multiple law enforcement sources.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo confirmed on Wednesday that Paddock, on the weekend before his attack, rented a room at a downtown Las Vegas luxury condominium complex, the Ogden, near the site of another music festival. Lombardo said police were reviewing video to determine what Paddock did there.
Discerning Paddock’s motive has proven especially baffling as he had no criminal record, no known history of mental illness and no outward signs of social disaffection, political discontent or extremist ideology, police said.
Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62, was questioned by the FBI on Wednesday and said in a statement she never had any inkling of Paddock’s plans.
Danley shared Paddock’s home at a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas, before traveling to the Philippines in mid-September.
Investigators questioned her about Paddock’s weapons purchases, a $100,000 wire transfer to a Philippine bank that appeared to be intended for her.
Danley said Paddock had bought her an airline ticket to visit her family and wired her money to purchase property there, leading her to worry he might be planning to break up with her.
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