A shooter opened fire on a campus in Las Vegas and killed at least three people in addition to seriously injuring another before being pronounced dead, local police in this large city in the American West said.
“The suspect is deceased,” the Las Vegas sheriff said on X (ex-Twitter). “There is no more danger.”
“Based on our on-site investigation, we have three deceased victims and one victim in critical condition at a local hospital,” police said on X (formerly Twitter).
In the afternoon, the police had alerted to “preliminary elements indicating a shooter in action on the campus” with “several people affected”.
The alert system of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas had reported shootings on campus and asked everyone to “evacuate the area”, located two kilometers from the famous “strip”, an artery known for its casinos.
Once police declared the event over, the university asked everyone to “go indoors” so police could “evacuate buildings one by one,” canceling all classes for the day.
In 2017, the gaming capital of the world experienced one of the worst gun massacres in the country.
A man opened fire from the 32nd floor of a hotel onto a crowd below attending a country music concert, killing 58 and wounding hundreds, before killing himself.
The United States is paying a very heavy price for the spread of firearms on its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.
The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one weapon and almost one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.
The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, incomparable to that of other developed countries.
About 49,000 people died from gunfire in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year.
This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.
However, it is the tragedies with many victims that mark people’s minds the most, while illustrating the ideological gap separating conservatives and progressives on the question of how to prevent such tragedies.
With VAT News
