The Las Vegas Strip Will Go Dark to Honor the Victims of Last Years Mass Shooting
The iconic marquee lights of the Las Vegas strip will go dark Monday night as Sin City observes the first anniversary of a deadly mass shooting. The lights will be extinguished at 1001 p.m. on Monday in remembrance of the 58 victims, whose names will be read out at a memorial site, USA Today reports. Flags across Nevada will also reportedly fly at half-staff on Monday, and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval will speak at a sunrise ceremony that will observe 58 seconds of silence. "A lot of people have probably put it out of their minds," said Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, according to USA Today. "The anniversary is going to bring up a lot of feelings, good and bad.", On Oct. 1 last year, thousands of people convened in Las Vegas for the Route 91 Harvest music festival. But the concert devolved into terror and chaos when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel and casino. Read more These Are the Victims of the Las Vegas Shooting, Police later found Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant, dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators have not been able to identify his motive. The shooting was the deadliest in modern history, and prompted renewed debate about gun restrictions in America. Paddock had prepared for the massacre with at least 10 weapons, including rifles outfitted with "bump-stocks," a modification that allows semi-automatic guns to fire at a faster, nearly automatic rate. In March, after another shooting killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, the Justice Department proposed banning "bump stocks."