What does Americans want Trump to do in to avoid these shooting incidents
After the country's
deadliest gun attack in these times, people in the US are looking to the
president for answers, Will he provide them?
Last Sunday night,
as the horror unfolded at the Route 91 country music festival, Bob and Heidi
were serving pizzas.
They'd travelled
from their home state of Arkansas to work at the concert, when they heard the
sound of bullets.
As they took
shelter in the food stand, with the heat of the pizza oven behind them, they
helped people leave the venue to safety.
Still shaken by
what happened, they, like so many people here in Las Vegas, are trying to work
out what, if anything, could have been done to prevent the atrocity.
"It's not the
guns, it's more the people who own the guns," says Bob, who thinks there
should be better checks on the mental health of buyers.
His calls for
tougher restrictions on those with mental illness is at odds with what
President Trump has done in the White House so far.
Earlier this year, and to little fanfare, the president rolled back an Obama-era regulation which had
restricted people with serious mental illnesses from owning a gun.
It's a move his
supporters I've met here are at odds with.
"It's not the
gun doing it, it's the mind of the individual," says Crystal, a Trump
voter from Branson, Missouri.
"Everybody
should have the right to carry a weapon, but that doesn't justify somebody
going crazy," she says, pointing out that she carries a firearm when she's
back home.
"I carry a
gun, and I haven't shot anybody," she adds.
Crystal does
believes the constitutional right to bear arms should come with some conditions.
Before she
received a permit for her weapon she was required to take a "conceal and
carry course", which taught her how to use the gun safely.
But the law in her home state changed at the start of this year - in
Missouri you no longer require a permit to own a gun.
She believes this
should be reversed, and also that if someone wants a gun they must be trained
in how to use it responsibly.
Her husband Terry,
who also voted for Donald Trump, suggests another area where there should be
tighter restrictions.
Police say they found what are known as "bump-stock" modifications on 12 rifles in
Stephen Paddock's room. These legal devices allow people to modify a
semi-automatic gun, turning into an automatic weapon, which can fire multiple
rounds at a time.
Semi-automatic
weapons, such as the AK-47 and Colt AR-15, are also legal. It was these kinds
of weapons that were used in the massacres at Sandy Hook, Newtown and Orlando,
and it appears these kinds of weapons were modified for Sunday's shooting.
Terry argues
these, and any sort of automatic weapon, which allows the firing of multiple
rounds at once, should be banned.
The same question
is also on the mind of Diane Quast, from Tennessee, who is outside the Mandalay
Bay hotel where the attack took place.
As she stared out
past the yellow police tape which has closed the surrounding roads, she could
see the two broken windows on the 32nd floor, from where Paddock carried out
his murderous rampage.
"I definitely
support gun control," she said. "I am truly hoping that in the wake
of this tragedy, something will come of it."
In the wake of
every recent mass shooting, she has hoped politicians would heed the calls of
millions like her and restrict access to firearms.
But just as there
are many people like Diane, there are many who feel the real issue has nothing
to do with legislating gun ownership.
"I don't
think President Trump needs to say anything about gun control," says Bob,
from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
"I don't
believe gun control is going to stop these kinds of attacks. They need to have
better security screening when you enter hotels."
More than 20
firearms were found in Stephen Paddock's hotel suite. Reports say he carried
them up to his room in at least 10 suitcases.
Bob argues that
metal detectors at the entrance of the hotel would have prevented this from
ever happening.
It's a view a few
people I've met here have echoed. In cities like Mumbai and Jerusalem you have
to go through airport style security checks to enter many hotels and public
buildings. In India the changes came in after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks
which left 174 people dead.
Now as every
vehicle enters a large hotel in a major Indian city, it is scanned for bombs
underneath, and the back of the car is checked for weapons.
As I leave the
Vegas strip, Denise Murphy and Quanetta Suggs from Indiana remind me how
conflicted this nation is when it comes to guns.
"The
president just needs to make it harder for people to purchase guns. Full
stop," says Denise. "Everyone should not be able to get their hands
on one."
Everyone I've met
in Vegas agrees Paddock should never have been allowed to access so many
weapons or indeed modify them. But a solution is harder to pin down.
President Trump's
words in the wake of the shooting will provide some comfort to many who are
hurting in the wake of this tragedy.
But the greater
challenge for his presidency is to heal the deep divisions over firearms, which
have plagued this nation for generations.
This isn't the
first time the country has grappled with this issue in the wake of a mass
shooting, and it's probably not the last.
Original Article Source : BBC NEWS
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