In the late hours of Sunday, Oct. 1, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people.

Near the Mandalay Bay casino and hotel in Las Vegas, Route 91 Harvest Music Festival attendees scrambled to find coverage upon hearing gunshots sound out during country singer Jason Aldean’s set.

The shooting lasted just 10 to 15 minutes, but the effects are long-lasting. Over 50 people were killed, and more than 500 were left injured.

The suspect of the shooting was identified by police as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year old Nevada native. The shooting was conducted out of a hotel room window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, which is where Paddock’s dead body was found after the shooting.
Aside from Paddock’s own body, investigators found other shocking material in the hotel room. At least 20 weapons were found in his hotel room, some of which were AR-15 assault rifles and the hammer Paddock had used to smash the hotel room window.

Upon further inspection into Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nevada, police found 18 firearms, explosives, and several thousand rounds of ammunition.

Harrowing videos and images of the incident are trending all over social media, from videos of the moment the concert-goers heard the gunshots and cried out “get down!” to the footage of Aldean making his hasty leave from the stage.

This shooting’s casualties amount to that of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting and the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting combined, and even beats out the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting – a tragedy that was labelled America’s most deadly mass shooting just last year.

Disasters such as mass shootings are notorious for the polarizing questions they raise. Was the suspect associated with a terrorist organization? Was it a hate crime? Was the attacker mentally insane? Does America need further restrictions on gun control? How can we stop these events from happening in the future?

With no clear-cut answer to these questions, American citizens are left helpless and afraid. With a devastating and record-high death toll, The Las Vegas Harvest Festival shooting will go down in history as the most deadly mass shooting in modern United States history.