Home » Blogs » At Least One of Stephen Paddock’s Rifles Was Equipped With a Bump-Fire Stock

At Least One of Stephen Paddock’s Rifles Was Equipped With a Bump-Fire Stock

Dan Zimmerman - comments No comments

Photos of two of the AR’s used by Stephen Paddock to shoot at a concert crowd assembled below the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas Sunday night have emerged. From dailymail.co.uk: “The photos, obtained by Boston 25, show two semi-automatic weapons, with one having a ‘bump stock‘ added to make it fully automatic. Fully-automatic weapons allow the shooter to unleash bullet after bullet simply by holding down the trigger.” . . .

With that weapon, Paddock would have been capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute into the crowd. That gun also had an over-sized magazine attached so he wouldn’t have to pause to refill ammunition as often.

The other weapon has branding showing that it was made by Daniel Defense, a Savannah, Georgia-based company which produces variants of the AR-15 rifle, originally created for the American military. That weapon also has a bi-pod attached for stability and a telescopic lens for accuracy.

In the two pictures, the guns are seen laid out on the bed in Paddock’s hotel room. One of the rifles is seen next to a full magazine, dozens of spent bullets and a hammer – which the 64-year-old shooter allegedly used to shatter two windows in the room, which he then used to fire out of onto the crowd below.

The bumpfire stock on the Daniel Defense rifle in the photo above would account for the “automatic” gunfire heard in videos of the shooting. And given the typical journalist’s knowledge (or lack thereof) of firearms, reports of rifles on “tripods” were probably referring to bipod-equipped AR’s.

These are the only two firearms to have been positively identified from yesterday’s shooting so far. More details, including a full inventory of what was in that hotel room, will surely be revealed in time. Will there now be a push to outlaw bumpfire and other “work-around” solutions that simulate fully automatic fire? That seems a good bet.

0 thoughts on “At Least One of Stephen Paddock’s Rifles Was Equipped With a Bump-Fire Stock”

  1. How different the responses would be if the people ranting “do nothing” would be if their own daughter were now laying in the morgue in a pool of congealed blood and guts. Yes the dim light bulb would go on in their heads and they would say “what could we have done to prevent this”? They would not be pontificating out of an ivory tower through rose colored sun glasses but be getting ready to attend a funeral and the worst day of their entire lives. Idealistic philosophy on unlimited access to weapons of war has little meaning when standing over the rivers of blood and carnage of innocent young people that had there entire lives before them.

    The only good to come of this is that the young crowd that was largely right wing now faced with the reality of the mass destruction that is possible with the unlimited access to weapons of war certainly has changed many of their minds on gun control permanently as it is something they do not want to see ever happen again and they being young will be doing something about it and it will not be perpetuating the unlimited access to weapons of mass destruction that no one needs in a civilized society.

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  2. Your first paragraph says the bumpfire stock “makes it fully automatic”. Later you correctly state that it “simulates” full auto. We must be incredibly careful of of words. The left is much better than us in playing with language and will take advantage of any of our slipups.
    Can I respectfully request you correct that first paragraph ?

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  3. Im also in the had to be a bumpfire stocked gun. Yes it will eventually come up as the next have to ban item. Having a crank-bumpfire type trigger accessory myself on one of my carbines. I too expect that also to be mentioned eventuality before I get a chance to even try it.

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  4. Gotta’ get my next free NRA membership courtesy a BRAZILIAN Taurus. Always blame the the means and never the individual…anyone see the late-night “comedians”?!? Especially the South-African whining about American gunviolence. South freakin’ Africa????????????????

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  5. It is time to end refusing to call mass murderers who do not have obvious political motives terrorists

    Oh yes, by all means let’s end the tyranny of Words Having Meanings. It’s time to stop refusing to call people criminals just because there’s no evidence they’ve committed a crime. It’s time to stop refusing to call something a dog just because it has wings and a beak. I love Keith Olbermann, he’s such a necrophiliac.

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  6. My bet is Paddock was on legally prescribed SSRi antidepressant drugs. EVERY mass shooting not perpetrated by filthy mohammefan savages has been by shooters on antidepressants. Lanza in CT, the dude in the Colorado movie theatre, the dude who shot Gabby Gifford’s, the Korean student at VA Tech. Every one of these assholes were on anyidepressants. Shit, even the Columbine kids were on ssri’s.

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  7. Does anyone else find it strange how the DC & Mandalay Bay Shooting we’re done by a leftist madman who hates Trump and went after Republicans openly. It is all to convenient and obviously planned against the right and to motivate taking away rights. I would not be surprised to see George Soro’s directly involved. This is nothing short of a war on conservatives and the Constitution. This is no doubt another false flag event. It shocks me to see how tolerant the right is. We have become cowards and the left knows it. We are now in a war with home grown domestic enimies now it is time to wake up and take back what is ours and put a stop to this crybaby stupid crap we have been seeing because Trump won and not the Benghazi butcher. I have been in the Military for over 20 years and have flown 100 of missions in several countries but us military members can’t do it alone. We need the help of Patriots that have a real desire to sustain our way of life and the Constitution for our children and GrandChildren. Anitifa has indicated they are planning to start civil war this Nov. and remove Trump from office. They need to remove the gun rights of U.S. citizens to make the job easier so it makes sense they plan shootings to scare people into giving up the 2nd Amendment. This is a strategic war we are in now at home. Better wake up before they start putting you in camps for being a Christian or Gun owner or listening to Country Music. This is real war folks.

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  8. I own several legal NFA Firearms with the giggle switch. I’ve also shot an AR with a bump fire stock.

    Either way shooting more than a few rounds quickly becomes more or less uncontrollable as far as accuracy. Some more than others of course. The bump fire stock was not easy to operate correctly and would probably take a lot of practice and I would think accuracy would suffer tremendously.

    In this particular case I don’t think the shooter cared about accuracy so it probably didn’t matter either way.

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  9. This is just BS speculation right now, as so much is, but it’s my BS speculation.

    When they start matching up brass to rifles, my guess is that he’ll have used most of the rifles at least once. he may have only used a couple mainly, but I’m thinking his intent was to spread the killing over as wide an assortment of arms as possible. Sick S.O.B.

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  10. Here’s my question… bumpfire stocks are woefully inadequate. From the range the shooter was aiming from, a bumpfire stock would be the LAST thing I’d reach for. I realize he had a large mass of targets, but still.

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  11. It’s simple…

    If Trump (and Republicans in general) want *any* chance of keeping their office through 2018 and 2020 elections, they can’t pivot anywhere.

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  12. That rifle in the second picture does NOT have a bump-fire stock on it.

    AND THERE’S NO FING WAY THOSE 30 ROUND MAGS ACHIEVED THE STRINGS OF FIRE HEARD ON THE VARIOUS VIDEOS.

    A sixty round mag (in the first picture) might have gotten close, but they are also the most likely to cause (temper mental operation of the weapon(s) and) failures to fire due to the magazine ‘sagging’ in the mag-well due to the additional weight.

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  13. How would they? Assuming the rifles are broken down and packed in regular suitcases. There’s no point being dickish about this.

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  14. The wheels of gun confiscation often turn slowly but surely. The Democrats look like it will be a slam dunk in the 2018 elections due to the fact that the American people now know that the corrupt Republicans, especially Mitch McConnell got huge pay offs from the Drug and Insurance Companies to try and destroy Obama Care with its pre-existing condition bans and its rules against Insurance caps and denials. McConnell got almost a half million dollars in bribe money to remain their Prostitute along with a long list of other Republican criminals. They are also heavily invested in the Insurance and Drug Companies so that they make millions on the bankruptcies of Americas ill and dying people.

    All this of course makes gun bans under a Democratic controlled Congress and House a sure thing. They may have to wait till Herr Drumpf either gets impeached or defeated in the next election but eventually the gun ban legislation is going to be inevitable. In compensation for all this at least the American people will get improved health care that seems to be certain once the Democrats take over and for old people it cannot come soon enough. No, many do not want to lose their guns but when it comes to their health care guns do not even come in a distant second in importance but their lives do come first. If the Republicans had worked with the Democrats to correct the few deficiencies that Obama Care has they might have had a chance to hold on to power but their greed mongering and prostitution to the Drug and Insurance Companies showed the American people how dangerous they are to the health and welfare of the American people. No other civilized Industrial country reserves health care only for the rich and powerful and health care for greed and profit has been outlawed in civilized countries long ago as well it should have been here to. The Republicans had their chance and blew it and its no surprise they are going to get their dirty asses thrown out of power and for all the American people it cannot come soon enough guns or no guns. Its a shame we will lose so much of our gun rights but that’s life, you win some things and lose others and staying alive with adequate health care is paramount in all peoples lives, owning any type of guns we want is not. That’s cold hard reality like it or not no punch’s pulled no bullshit told.

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  15. Well, if he wants to pass a new federal law that it’s illegal to shoot innocent concert attendees from a hotel window, I guess I’m cool with that. Though, I think that’s illegal already. But if he wants to make it double special illegal…go for it.

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  16. Of this I have no doubt.
    A state ruled by tyrannical one party fail, corruption, and a voter block so low informed as to be a joke. Well, erasing FREEDOM and LIBERTY is easy.

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  17. right. and liberals are not culpable for the violence other liberals unleash in society. got it. wanna make sure i understand the double standard, if thats possible.

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  18. Patiently waiting for free armed Americans to physically remove these mouth-breathing tyrants from office.

    Awfully pretentious to insult the armed Americans that provide you with the freedoms you enjoy. Moreso when you are a politician who actively endangers lives and screws over others to advance your own personal gains.

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  19. Ryan is the DNC’s new Harry Reid. He will sit on any conservative or pro-2A bill indefinitely for the DNC. #DrainTheRinoSwamp

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  20. Gotta say, I keep carrying my Bersa 380CC. Picked it up from an FFL at a gun show for $240 back in 2008. Still gets almost daily use as a BUG in a DeSantis ankle rig. Very comfy on this 6’0″ 190 lb. body and it’s 8+1 which is surprising in such a concealable guy. Often mistaken in IDPA BUG matches for a badly re-blued old PPK which I take as a compliment.

    It has a 2nd-generation CT laser-grip that does require my trigger finger rest easy on the ejector port to not block the beam. Not a problem.

    Has at least 2k rounds through it. Fair amount for a back-up piece. Noticed recently that the double-strike had quit working. So, something broke or is worn out in the de-cocker/trigger interface. I’m sending it to Ahlman’s in Morristown, MN, for warranty repair. My only expense will be outbound shipping. Still a happy camper but this gives me an excuse to pick up a Glock 42 to try as a substitute BUG while I’m waiting.

    EDC gun in a Crossbreed IWB is a Gen 3 Glock19 with over 10k rounds through it. Has a smooth-face G17 trigger with a Ghost kit but still set for about 4.5 lb. Added a Vickers mag release before I shot it the first time. The most recent addition is a OneSource Tactical mag-well to prevent the dreaded pinch on the heel of your hand when slamming a mag home, esp. on the clock in a match. So far, so good.

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  21. Ryan is a uniparty piece of shit who needs to get thrown out of office in the midterms.

    In other words, yes he’ll fall for it — willingly.

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  22. Phoebe, an American who lives in Canada, thinks we should ban all guns–all of them–even police guns. Aside from the pragmatic impossibility of gathering up hundreds of millions of arms and tens of billions of rounds of ammunition, what are we to do–what are the police to do–when confronted by a man armed with a knife or machete, sane, sober, or not? Oh, we will need to ban knives, like England did. And everyone gets their own personal taser–oh wait, then bad guys would have them too to conveniently disable their victims while robbing and raping them. How are we going to manage wild game, or are we to just let it starve itself down to a manageable population? The list of what goes wrong if she got her wish demonstrates that she has no brains or lives in some kind of utopian bubble of bliss that reason cannot penetrate.
    Phoebe! Oh Phoebe! Wake up, Phoebe. There has never ever been a time in human history where men have been without arms of one sort or another, even if those arms were pointy sticks and sharp edged rocks. And just looking at the world as a whole, there is no reason to suspect that this will change–or more importantly COULD change–within our lifetimes, and lifetimes far beyond.

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  23. Of course Ryan will fall for this.

    The repubs have proven themselves in all ways gutless and witless against the democrats.

    I’m often ashamed to even identify with them.

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  24. If the TTAG recorded the interview please release it ASAP. This feels like a hit job designed to make gun owners look bad.

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