How the US government created and coddled the gun industry

After Stephen Paddock opened fire on Las Vegas concertgoers on Oct. 1, many people responded with calls for more gun control to help prevent mass shootings and the routine violence ravaging U.S. neighborhoods.

But besides a rare consensus on restricting the availability of so-called bump stocks, which Paddock used to enable his dozen semi-automatic rifles to fire like machine guns, it’s unclear if anything meaningful will come of it.

If advocates for reform despair after such a tragedy, I can understand. The politics seem intractable right now. It’s easy to feel powerless.

But what I’ve learned from a decade of studying the history of the arms trade has convinced me that the American public has more power over the gun business than most people realize.

Washington’s patronage
The U.S. arms industry’s close alliance with the government is as old as the country itself, beginning with the American Revolution.

Forced to rely on foreign weapons during the war, President George Washington wanted to ensure that the new republic had its own arms industry. Inspired by European practice, he and his successors built public arsenals for the production of firearms in Springfield and Harper’s Ferry. They also began doling out lucrative arms contracts to private manufacturers such as Simeon North, the first official U.S. pistol maker, and Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin.
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Even US gun lobby is ready to target 'bump stocks' after Las Vegas shooting

The US 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.

Authorities said his ability to fire hundreds of rounds per minute over the course 10 minutes from a 32nd-floor hotel suite was a major factor in the high casualty count - 58 people killed and hundreds wounded. Paddock, 64, killed himself before police stormed his suite.

The carnage on Sunday night across the street from the Mandalay Bay hotel ranked as the bloodiest mass shooting in modern US history, surpassing the 49 people shot to death last year at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
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He was quiet, caring: Vegas shooter's girlfriend denies knowledge of attack

The girlfriend of the Las Vegas shooter said on Thursday that she had no idea he was planning the attack, describing her boyfriend as a "quiet, caring man" as President Donald Trump declared the United States a nation in mourning.

In her first public comments over the shooting at a country music concert that left 58 dead and more than 500 injured, Marilou Danley said she had hoped for a quiet future with Stephen Paddock.

In Las Vegas, Trump visited with survivors and first responders, eulogizing parents and spouses who "used their own bodies to protect their loved ones" from the onslaught that eliminated any future for many.

He toured the Las Vegas Police Department Command Center and the city's University Medical Center, where he met, among others, officer Tyler Peterson who was injured while responding to the shooting.

"In the months ahead, we will all have to wrestle with the horror that unfolded this week, but we will struggle through it together," the president said.

Air Force One touched down at McCarran International Airport as the FBI was questioning Danley for clues to what drove Paddock to mass murder.
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Stephen Paddock, Las Vegas suspect, was a gambler who drew little attention

He was a high-stakes gambler recognized in the casinos of Nevada. He dabbled in real estate investments in Texas. His last known full-time employment was 30 years ago. He was twice divorced. He had a pilot’s license and had owned two single-engine planes.

While his motive for the mass shooting outside a Las Vegas casino on Sunday night is unknown, details of Stephen Paddock’s history pointed to an unmoored and highly unconventional life.

From his neighbors in a quiet retirement community in Mesquite, Nev., he drew little attention, unless it was for his extreme propensity to keep to himself. He displayed no strong religious or political views, his relatives said, and was not known for angry outbursts.

But he was the son of a bank robber who ultimately escaped from prison and spent most of the 1970s on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list. His girlfriend, sought for questioning by law enforcement officials after the shooting, had passed through Tokyo, officials said.

Details about Mr. Paddock’s career and livelihood were sparse, aside from observations by neighbors and family members that he routinely gambled large amounts of money. “He was a gambler, that was his job,” his brother, Eric Paddock, told reporters Monday at his home in Orlando. “He was a wealthy guy, playing video poker, who went cruising all the time and lived in a hotel room.”
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