It is not the best timing, but the big NBAA show is next week in Las Vegas (Oct 10-12). I’ll be there on Tuesday and Wednesday and more or less free in the evenings. Happy to get together with readers. Use the comment section here or email to propose a plan!
(I’ll be in Zion National Park before the show in case there are readers in southern Utah!)
check out those jet fuel tanks 1100 feet from the country music venue. Fox News seemed to think that the shooter attempted to blow up 2 aviation tanks in the general aviation part of McCarran, but that his bullets did not penetrate either tank. This explains the need for knocking out 2 windows in his suite — one pointed toward the hapless concert goers; the other pointed toward these tanks in the hopes of a massive explosion. As bad as it was, it could have been far, far worse. FYR: https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/the-strip/las-vegas-strip-shooter-targeted-aviation-fuel-tanks-source-says/
I don’t think shooting a bullet into a Jet fuel tank would set it on fire. Jet fuel isn’t too flammable. Maybe our kind host Phil has the answer?
another report claims that law enforcement found a bullet inside one of the tanks. Many of the concert-goers streamed toward McCarran, and at least one of the runways was shut down by Air Traffic Control. At that time, however, no one would have had any idea that bullets were sent in the direction of the airport.
Given the way he was wildly shooting with his bump stock (the trade off for rapid fire is that you can’t really aim that well) it’s not inconceivable that some of his bullets went astray and hit the tanks. Jet fuel is basically the same thing as kerosene (not that most people have experience with kerosene anymore either) which is somewhat less volatile than gasoline. It’s pretty unlikely to set a jet fuel tank on fire, let alone cause an explosion, just by shooting rifle bullets into it. Mainly you would just make a small hole in the tank and cause a small leak although he was so far away that most of the bullets didn’t even penetrate. The other locations that he scouted were not near airports – I think it’s just a coincidence that he hit the tanks given that he was spraying lead everywhere.
Given the setup and the amount of time that he had, Paddock could have probably killed even more people than he did if he had aimed his gun and taken shots one by one. But the bump stock will be the sacrificial lamb for his sins. It’s a socially useless device and no great loss, but it had little to do with the magnitude of the crime.
Even banning all long guns would do little to shift the rate of gun homicide – the vast majority of gun homicides involve handguns.
Jet fuel is very difficult to ignite, having a flash point over 100 degrees F. (Gasoline FP is subzero degrees.) You can usually throw a match into liquid Jet A and it will extinguish, but still don’t try it at home.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/the-strip/commissioner-calls-for-security-review-of-jet-fuel-tanks-after-las-vegas-strip-shooting/
The skepticism expressed by commenters here about his targeting the fuel tanks in order to cause an explosion was reasonable. Las Vegas sheriff has concluded that ” . . . Paddock shot at the tanks to create a diversion.”