Paddock reportedly used a hammer to smash a pair of windows and set up two high-powered rifles with scopes on tripods overlooking the Route 91 Harvest country music festival below, where he fired into a crowd of more than 20,000 concertgoers. Paddock had at least 23 firearms in his hotel suite, and a further 19 guns were later found at his home, along with explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Paddock had no criminal record and was able to purchase his arsenal legally. Gun experts believe he may have used a trigger device—available for purchase online for as little as $40—that can turn a semi-automatic assault rifle into a fully automatic machine gun. At the White House, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was not the time to talk about gun control.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “There’s a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country. There is currently an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation. A motive is yet to be determined, and it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don’t fully know all the facts or what took place last night.”

On Twitter, journalist Naomi Klein responded, “Don’t talk about guns after a massacre. Or climate change after storms. Or austerity after firetrap buildings burn. Talk when no one listens.”