CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- The Associated Press reports that a law enforcement source says the Las Vegas shooter had 17 guns inside his hotel room when he opened fire on a crowd across the street.
Many are asking what kind of gun could fire so many shots so quickly. 4 in Your Corner spoke with an expert to get some perspective on this.
Gun store owner and 10-year army veteran, Aaron Forum, listened to cell phone video captured during the Las Vegas massacre and assessed the weapon used was fully automatic.
"So that’s very obvious to me. Immediately that’s a fully automatic weapon," said Forum, owner of Shoot Center on Del Prado Road.
Full automatic rifles, or in other words machine guns, are not typically available to the general public and usually kept for military or police services. However, Forum explained that these weapons are still able to be attained in Florida by the average citizen with a few qualifications.
Those qualifications include being 18 years or older, having a valid driver's license and having a clean criminal background. The military veteran pointed out that the biggest barrier to obtaining full automatic weaponry was money.
"The average citizen just simply can't afford those weapons," he explained. "You can be talking upward of 30 to 40 thousands dollars for different types of firearms that are available. That’s why you’ve only seen maybe two or three depending on what source you site legally transferrable machine guns used in crimes to kill people."
Despite the tragedy in Las Vegas, Forum said creating stricter gun laws wouldn't make a difference.
“If someone wants to get their hands on a firearm to go and hurt other people, regardless of how strict the laws are, they’re going to be able to do that.
