Some Useful Info on Last Night’s Las Vegas Shooting and How You Can Help

Last night marked another tragic milestone in the history of gun violence, with the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history unfolding in Las Vegas. There’s a lot of information floating around, so we’ve condensed things down to what you need to know, as well as some info on how you can potentially help out.

The latest total is that at least 50 people were killed in the incident, with over 400 hospitalized (now updated to 58 killed, 515 injured) after gunman Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire on a crowd of about 22,000 country music festival attendees in Las Vegas, near Mandalay Bay. Paddock was holed up in a hotel room, across the street, on the 32nd floor. There’s no news yet on any motive, but Paddock has been killed (apparently by himself, as police closed in), and it doesn’t currently appear that there’s danger of more violence. Police sought, and located, a woman named Marilou Danley, who does not appear to have been involved in the attack, in connection with Paddock. It seems he simply used her identification to check into his hotel.

To check on friends and loved ones who may have been in the area, police suggest using Facebook’s safety check feature or calling 1-866-535-5654. There’s a family reunification center at the metro headquarters at 400 S. MLK Blvd., building B.

For anyone who would like to help, blood donations are needed for those still struggling with injuries in the hospital:

Meanwhile, Buzzfeed has a hoax tracker to help you keep from falling for false info:

There’s been an outpouring of emotion and analysis on social media, with plenty of criticism of gun laws—and of those who don’t think the aftermath of an incident of gun violence is the right time to talk about solutions to gun violence. It seems that Paddock used an automatic weapon due to the horrifying rate of fire. However, whatever the case of this incident, it’s hard to argue that anything would be improved if gun laws were more relaxed, though the GOP is still at work trying to do just that:

Whatever the solution to gun violence is, we should all be able to agree that it’s not that.

(image: City of Las Vegas)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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