Investigators found fully automatic guns among multiple weapons in Stephen Paddock's 32nd-floor Las Vegas hotel room, according to the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff. Sheriff Joe Lombardo of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, is in charge of the investigation into the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Private citizens can legally own fully automatic weapons made before October 1986 after submitting to a federal background check and applying for a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Newly manufactured fully automatic weapons are more heavily regulated by ATF and can only be sold to some federal and state agencies. Incidents like this are made "all the more lethal because of access to automatic weapons," he added.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 02, 2017 20:54 UTC