Las Vegas gunman altered guns to work like fully automatic weapons

FORT MYERS, Fla. The gunman behind the deadliest shooting in U.S. history used a method called bump stock to unleash hundreds of rounds of gunfire into a crowd of 22,000 concertgoers.

Stephen Paddock, 64, is responsible for killing at least 59 people and injuring 527 Monday at a music festival in Las Vegas.

23 guns and 12 bump stock devices were found inside the hotel room where Paddock was staying, according to the Associated Press.

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The bump stock devices allowed Paddock’s semi-automatic rifles to fire rapidly and continuously, as if they were fully automatic weapons, according to the Associated Press. Nineteen more guns were found at Paddock’s Mesquite home and seven at his Reno house.

The device can be purchased legally and without any verification process, Fort Myers Gunsmith Phil Francisco said.

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“You can order it off the internet yourself,” Francisco said. “You can put it on a gun yourself if you wanted to.”

The device can increase rounds per minute by about 25 percent, Francisco said. But it can also decrease accuracy dramatically.

“The tools don’t justify what he did,” Francisco said.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill Wednesday that would ban the sale and possession of bump stock equipment and other devices that would turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.