Route 91 Harvest Shooting
On the night of Sunday, October 1, a 64-year old gunman opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 concert goers in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
59 people were killed (victims: 36 women, 22 men), including the male shooter, and over 500 people sustained non-fatal injuries.
The Route 91 Harvest is a country music festival held just off the famous Las Vegas Boulevard. The fourth annual festival in 2017 featured major acts such as Eric Church, Sam Hunt, Jake Owen and Jason Aldean.
Aldean: The shooting began while Jason Aldean, the closing act of the three-day festival, was performing “When She Says Baby” (warning: graphic). He was able to flee the stage unharmed. The shooting came from the 32nd floor of the adjacent Mandalay Bay Resort and was facilitated by the use of bump fire stocks.
Aldean opened Saturday Night Live six days later by paying tribute to the victims of the shooting and then by playing a cover of “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty, who passed away on Monday, October 2.
What is a bump stock: A bump stock is a semi-automatic rifle modification which enables the mimicking of the rapid fire of a fully automatic weapon. Twelve of the rifles found at the shooting has been modified with bump stocks, which has reignited the contentious debate over gun laws in the United States with bipartisan interest on common sense reform regarding bump stocks. Even the NRA seemed to grant permission.
“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” the organization said in a statement days after the attack. But the NRA has since announced opposition to a Senate bill introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) as well as to a bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Seth Moulton (D-MA). While the organization has publicly backed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to review the bump stock device, it says “these bills are intentionally overreaching and would ban commonly owned firearm accessories.”
Essentially its permission is merely for the ATF, not Congress, to review regulations, and its support is for more regulations on bump stocks, not an outright ban. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “Look, the investigation’s not even been completed. And I think it’s premature to be discussing legislative solutions, if there are any.”
So it appears that inaction will once again be the congressional course of action, particularly as the headlines of the Vegas shooting retreat.
Shooter: His identity will not be mentioned here. Mass shooters fully expect that their names, pictures and backgrounds to be featured prominently in the aftermath of their attacks; in fact, it’s often part of the underlying objective of mass shooters, frequently loners, altogether.
For the purpose of the argument, consider that Columbine shooter Eric Harris once mentioned to his fellow attacker Dylan Klebold, “isn’t it fun to get the respect that we’re going to deserve.” The two also hoped that filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino would fight to portray their attack on screen.
So if these mass shooters seek glory and fame, shouldn’t we stop giving it to them? After all, experts warn that mass shootings can be contagious, so when media over-investigates the shooters as part of their perceived duty of reporting, or dives too deeply into the motives in the name of preventing another attack, might we run the risk of unwittingly spawning imitation?
This perverse paradox of learning more about an incident in order to prevent another while also breeding copycats can only be reversed if media en masse recognize that they are providing fame to fame-seekers, and thus fulfilling the memorializing motivation.
Mass shooters should be not be remembered, but rather entirely forgotten.
Victims: So rather than offering the undeserved posthumous fame and glorification to one man, let’s remember the innocent victims of the cowardly attack, done well here by The Washington Post. Their names are listed below:
Hannah Ahlers
Heather Warino Alvarado
Dorene Anderson
Carrie Barnette
Jack Beaton
Steve Berger
Candice Bowers
Denise Burditus
Sandy Casey
Andrea Castilla
Denise Cohen
Austin Davis
Thomas Day Jr.
Christiana Duarte
Stacee Etcheber
Brian Fraser
Keri Galvan
Dana Gardner
Angie Gomez
Charleston Hartfield
Christopher Hazencomb
Jennifer Irvine
Nicol Kimura
Jessica Klymchuk
Carly Kreibaum
Rhonda LeRocque
Victor Link
Jordan McIldoon
Kelsey Breanne Meadows
Calla Medig
Sonny Melton
Pati Mestas
Austin Meyer
Adrian Murfitt
Rachael Parker
Jenny Parks
Carrie Parsons
Lisa Patterson
John Phippen
Melissa Ramirez
Jordyn Rivera
Quinton Robbins
Cameron Robinson
Rocio Guillen Rocha
Tara Roe
Lisa Romero-Muniz
Christopher Roybal
Brett Schwanbeck
Bailey Schweitzer
Laura Shipp
Erick Silva
Susan Smith
Brennan Stewart
Derrick ‘Bo’ Taylor
Neysa Tonks
Michelle Vo
Kurt von Tillow
Bill Wolfe Jr.
