On October 1st, country music lovers gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Route 91 Harvest music festival. Jason Aldean, the closing performer of the festival, was performing on stage when a gunman opened fire on the 22,000 people in attendance, turning what was supposed to be a fun evening into a horrifying tragedy.

As far as we know, 58 people are dead and more than 500 are injured due to the work of one shooter who fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. The shooter was identified by the law enforcements as Stephen Paddock, a Nevada resident of the age 64, according to relatives he was normal and had no mental health problems; so far, a motive is not known. Though his family never suspected he would do anything like this, Stephen Paddock had numerous amount of guns, including 33 new guns that were purchased in the past few months. The police suspect that he may not have been working alone due to the sheer amount of weapons, ammunition, and explosives that were found; the police searched three locations and found nearly 50 firearms, nearly half were in the hotel suite, some of the rifles there were fitted with bump stocks which allowed the guns to be fired almost automatically.

This has been called the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States due to the sheer number of dead and injured. There is no justifying this hideous crime, but the victims and their families may be able take comfort in knowing Stephen Paddock is no longer able to harm anyone else due to the fact that he committed suicide when the police busted into the hotel room he was occupying.

We wish all the best for the victims and their families.