LAS VEGAS GUN CULTURE
The tragic news of the Las Vegas massacre on October 1 was a great shock to the city. A lone gunman opened fire from his room at the Mandalay Bay hotel, claiming the lives of 58 people and injuring more than 500 others.
Just one week before the shooting I visited a gun convention at the Cashman Centre in Downtown. A light security check was performed on arrival, which was ironic given I was entering a place that had enough weapons to start a small war. The hall was filled with stands selling everything from 5.56mm M4 machine guns for US$1,228 (`78,979) to M&P15 semi-automatic rifles. There were stacks of Ruger 9mm magazines for US$20 (`1,286) and boxes of Winchester x 22 magnum full metal jacket bullets for US$12 (`771). There was an XMG beltfed 8mm machine gun made by BRP Corp using Nazi parts for US$6,999 (`4,50,144) and even rocket propelled grenades.
According to the National Rifle Association, you do not need a permit to buy hunting rifles or shotguns in Nevada. The state does not ban assault weapons, which are designed for maximum fatalities. Fully automatic weapons are illegal in the US but guns can be modified with legal accessories to make them fire at similar speeds.
If you buy a new gun from a dealer, they are required to do a background check but if you buy “private”, which basically means second-hand (of which there were hundreds at this show), you only need a valid ID to walk out with whatever you like. There is no bill of sale or registration requirement. Nevada is an open-carry state, which means you need a permit to conceal one on your person, but not to wear it in view. There is no limit on magazine capacity, the number of bullets or the number of guns you can buy.
One vendor I spoke to said: “In terms of the purchasing, anything that has a hand-written tag is privately owned. We have a federal firearms licence but we are allowed to own these [used guns] privately. Out the door there is no background check as long as you are a Nevada resident. We did 16 background checks today and 15 people walked out of here with one. We only had one three-day delay. We get first-time buyers all the time.”