At 10:05 p.m., Paddock opened fire from the window of his suite on a crowd of unsuspecting concert-goers below who were attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival. At the time the shooting commenced, country music star Jason Aldean was performing on stage. Long bursts of gunfire which sounded like fireworks began raining down on the stage and sparks were flying everywhere. Aldean didn't realize what was happening for several moments but he quickly exited the stage as the "snaps" continued.
 
It took several moments for the audience to realize they were in great danger and people in the crowd began dropping from gunshot wounds. The crowd soon began to panic and began fleeing but there were so many people crammed in such a small fenced area that they were like fish in a barrel for Paddock's high-grade weapons. The carnage was unlike anything witnessed by America before and from 10:05 to 10:15 p.m. the festival grounds became a war zone. Some of the concert-goers immediately recognized the sound as gunfire while others argued that it was just fireworks. 
 
Paddock fired over 1,100 rounds from his sniper perch on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay which overlooked the festival grounds. It took an hour for police to respond, pinpoint the source of the gunfire, and breach Paddock's hotel suite. The five Las Vegas police officers who were the first to reach his room attempted to make entry after a hotel security guard was shot in the leg through the door of Paddock's room and told the officers where the shooter was located. By the time the pol breached his room, Paddock had already shot himself in the head ending his own life before he could be apprehended. 

The result of the mass shooting was 58 people had died, and another 851 were injured with over 400 of those by gunfire and the rest sustained injuries during the massive stampede of fleeing concert-goers. The shooting is the deadliest mass shooting by far committed by a single individual in the United States. Eventually, investigators revealed that Paddock had used a device called a bump stock on his semi-automatic rifles which he had legally purchased along with extended magazines allowing for long bursts of rapid gunfire. For all intents and purposes, to the victims and witnesses, they were being shot at by what seemed to be a machine gun. 

The term "bump stock" soon permeated every news report and prompted several investigative reports about the device and how Paddock used it to kill over 50 people. The morning after the shooting, lines to donate blood to the victims of the shooting stretched for blocks. In Las Vegas alone, 800 units of blood were donated to the local blood bank following the shooting, it was later reported that 15% of that blood went unused. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval denounced the actions of Paddock calling the shooting "a tragic and heinous act of violence that has shaken the Nevada family." 
