Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff a pall still hangs over the glitz of las vegas tonight. Dozens remain critically injured, along with 59 killed outright, in a gunmans assault on a concert, sunday night. Investigators say he planned every aspect, even hiding a camera outside his room to keep watch. Cat wise begins our coverage from las vegas. Reporter a day after the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, police and f. B. I. Investigators in las vegas worked the crime scene. This individual was premeditated. Obviously premeditated. I was hoping, i pray in these situations that a citizen because we cant be at all places at all times that a citizen sees something, says something, and we act on that. Reporter theyre still trying to understand the gunman, yearold stephen paddock, a retired accountant turned gambler from mesquite, nevada. For those who survived the rampage, the question of why . Is paramount. I could understand if one person did something to somebody, but this person went on and killed so many people he didnt know, for no reason. Reporter on sunday night, paddock poured fire into the crowd of 22,000 people at a Country Music festival on the las vegas strip. He had stationed himself 32 floors up in the mandalay bay and resort and casino, knocking out windows for sniper perches. You want to stay still, because hes firing at moving objects. Thats what hes doing. Anybody laying down, that doesnt mean anything to him. In my opinion. So every time he stops, i get up and i move. Every time it starts, hunker down. You can just hear the rounds almost, like, creeping up on you, chchch. And it feels like theyre just, its like hunting you down. Reporter this mobile phone video from last year shows a tour of the exact room that paddock used. Police ultimately found him there, dead by his own hand. Overnight, vigils for his victims were held around the country. On the university of Nevadalas Vegas campus, a moment of silence. What happened is heartbreaking, and its scary, because it could have been us. It could have been anybody. Reporter all told, more than 500 people were wounded, some hit by bullets, some by shrapnel. Others were injured jumping over fences, or getting trampled. At University Medical center of southern nevada, trauma surgeon dr. Jay coates says they arrived in droves. Lung contusions, liver, spleen contusions, a number of other injuries. Vascular injuries. Broken bones. You name it, we saw it last night. Ght. As like a war zone last Reporter Police say paddock stockpiled at least 23 firearms in his hotel room, some with scopes. He also had a pair of socalled bump stocks, used to modify weapons and make them fully automatic. And at the gunmans home, 19 more guns, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. In washington today, democrats, including congressman Mike Thompson of california, opened a new drive for what they call commonsense gun laws. Its also important to note that yesterdays mass murder marks the 272nd time that weve experienced a mass shooting this year. Things are absolutely out of control. Reporter on the republican side, Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said discussions of gun violence should wait until the investigation in las vegas is over. House Speaker Paul Ryan focused on Mental Health issues. So i think its important that, as we see dust settle and we see what was behind some of these tragedies, Mental Health reform is a critical ingredient to making sure we can try to prevent some of these things from happening. Reporter President Trump weighed in on the shooter, as he left the white house, on his way to puerto rico. He was a sick man, a demented man. Lot of problems, i guess. And we are looking into him very, very seriously. But, we are dealing with a very, very sick individual. Well be talking about gun laws as time goes by. Reporter the president will be in las vegas tomorrow. Hospitals around the area continue to care for the wounded. Earlier today i spoke with dr. John file, medical director of the u. M. C. Trauma unit. I began by asking him to describe the scene late sunday night into early monday morning. While the shots were being fired, we were notified, and the hospital went on disaster drill. First wave came in, and they were mostly delivered by e. M. S. Units. We got them all into beds. We started treating them. We started to get them into the operating rooms, the i. C. U. , and so forth. And then the second wave came, and that was largely in private vehicles. What kind of injuries were you seeing . Mostly gunshot wounds. We saw a number of patients who were injured fleeing the scene. So we saw some pedestrians that were hit by cars. We saw some people who had fallen. We saw people who had been trampled. How do you view these things and your sense of how many you were going to get . Well, we anticipated a large number of patients. We didnt know how severely they would be injured. The science of disaster medicine tells us that the people that are going to die will largely die on the scene. Many people will be walking wounded and will flee the scene, and then there will be a smaller number of critical injuries. The night of the incident, i went through the rooms. We had about 30 or 40 people on stretch ers. I went around to every one of them and talked to them and examined them and spoke to them. The ones that were awake and alert were even holding pressure on their own wounds and telling me that its okay for me to take care of the sick ones. What did you make of that . Tremendous resilience. And the people were really selfless. The community responded. What does the road to recovery look like for the patients here, but especially those that are the most severely injured . Those patients will have temporary disabilities. Theyll have to be attended to and system of them will have permanent disabilities. We try to channel those patients into rehabilitation programs where they can get physical therapy and Occupational Training and posttraumatic stress management. Those patients typically do quite well. Were talking a matter of certainly months, perhaps even years. Its not uncommon that patients spend up to six months trying to recover, restore their strength and abilities to go back the work. How are you and your colleagues coping . Were all really tired. But as you walk around, you see this tremendous sense of pride that everybody has. What weve done, were just glad that we could be there. And people never want to go to a Trauma Center until they have to go to one, and were just glad we could be here. Woodruff that was kat wise reporting from las vgas. In the days other news, President Trump got a firsthand look at hurricane damage on puerto rico. He spent much of the day on the u. S. Territory, after rejecting criticism of his administrations response. He also said that Puerto Ricans well have a full report, later in the program. The Trump Administration today ordered 15 cuban diplomats to leave the United States within one week. Its meant to match the withdrawal of 60 of u. S. Diplomats from havana. The state department defended the moves today, citing unexplained attacks on americans in cuba, that damage hearing and vision. We have certainly been harmed in our ability to do our jobs down there, okay . And now cuba we have this not reciprocity but something of similar sorts where they dont have the ability to conduct their operations just like we cant so this is a punishment . No this is not a punishment. This is not a punishment. Woodruff cuba called the u. S. Move unjustified. The pentagon is backing diplomatic efforts with north korea, after President Trump disparaged the idea. Over the weekend, he tweeted that secretary of state Rex Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with kim jongun. Today, defense secretary jim mattis weighed in on the issue, at a senate hearing. The defense dept supports fully secretary tillersons efforts to find a diplomatic solution. I believe that secretary tillerson is accurately stating that we are probing for opportunities to talk with the north. All that we are doing is probing. Were not talking with them, consistent with the president s dismay about not talking with them before the time is right. Woodruff separately, mattis said he believes iran is fundamentally in compliance with the terms of its nuclear deal. President trump has accused iran of violating the spirit of the deal. This years nobel prize in physics goes to three scientists who were the first to detect Gravitational Waves in space. The announcement in stockholm today named americans barry barish and kip thorne of the California Institute of technology, and germanborn rainer weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of technology. I would love to be able to talk to Albert Einstein right now if i could and tell him about, that weve seen gravitation waves because he was skeptical about that and i would be even more pleased to tell him about black holes, which he was very skeptical about. Woodruff einstein predicted Gravitational Waves, or faint ripples in space and time, a century ago, but doubted they could ever be confirmed. Todays nobel winners detected waves caused by the collision of two black holes more than a billion lightyears away. The former c. E. O. Of equifax publicly apologized today for the Credit Bureaus massive data breach. The theft potentially affects more than 145 million americans. Richard smith told a house hearing that equifax is working to restore consumer trust. Lawmakers from both parties charged the companys response has been confusing and inadequate. Yahoo now says its data breach in 2013 affected all three billion of its accounts at the time. Thats three times larger than initially reported. The company says its notifying the additional account holders via email. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 84 points to close at 22,641. The nasdaq rose nearly 15, and the s p 500 added five. Still to come on the newshour the guns the las vegas shooter used in sundays deadly attack. President trumps trip to storm ravaged puerto rico. A Supreme Court case that could change the makeup of congress, and much more. Woodruff we remember now some of the victims of the tragedy in las vegas. They were mothers and fathers, siblings and teachers, veterans and colleagues. Here are 12 of the 59 people who died in sundays shooting, and what loved ones have said about them. 59yearold john phippen owned a Home Remodeling company. He had a heart that was larger than life and a personality to match, a neighbor said. Angie gomez graduated high school two years ago. She was a funloving young lady, her School District commented. She always challenged herself academically. 34yearold Charleston Hartfield was a Las Vegas Police officer. This man was not just a good man, he was a great man, one of his friends said. As kind as they come and cared about everyone. 53yearold susan smith was an Office Manager at a california elementary school. From its Parentteacher Association she was a wonderful woman, an advocate for our children, and a friend. 28yearold Christopher Roybal served in afghanistan. A colleague noted, if your car broke down in the middle of the night, you could call him and he would come help you. 29yearold sonny melton was a nurse. The white house said he shielded his wife from the bullets, saving her life. Jennifer irvine was a lawyer in san diego. A friend and Business Partner said she was a kind, generous and beautiful lady. 50yearold Stacee Etcheber was a hairdresser in novata, california. She was a loving wife and a great mother, her brotherin law commented. Tough as nails and just the salt of the earth. Bill wolfe, jr. Was a wrestling coach in pennsylvania. Every child mattered to him, said the aunt of one wrestler. Canadian mechanics apprentice jordan mcildoon was just shy of his 24th birthday. His family said he was a compassionate young man who lived a life full of adventures. 34yearold Carrie Barnette worked at disneyland. Disney c. E. O. Robert iger said she was beloved by her friends and colleagues, and a wonderful member of the disney family. Neysa tonks worked at a technology firm. The company noted she was a great mother, colleague and friend who brought so much joy, fun and laughter. And we will remember other victims in the days to come. While the killers motives remain unclear, we are learning more about the veritable arsenal this man brought into his hotel room. William brangham explains how some of those weapons were likely modified to increase the horrendous death toll of the concertgoers below. Brangham you can hear it in those horrible cell phone videos from sunday night. gunfire that rapid fire is virtually impossible for one person to do, unless youre using a fully automatic weapon. Fullyautomatic means one pull of the trigger fires a continuous stream of bullets. It continues firing until you release the trigger, or run out of ammunition. Thats certainly what the video from las vegas sounded like, but its been illegal to sell automatic weapons since 1986, when Ronald Reagan signed a law that banned them. They were considered too deadly for civilians to own. Existing owners in most states were grandfathered in, and those can be sold, but no new sales to civilians have been allowed since. So how was the killer able to shoot so many rounds, so quickly . One clue is right here. This is one of his guns from that hotel room. See this part of the gun . Thats an added modification known as a bumpstock, and its likely one of the ways he was able to kill so many people, so quickly. A bump stock is one of several ways that people now modify a legal, semiautomatic weapon into acting like a fully automatic machine gun. Youtube is full of videos of manufacturers and their customers showing how these easy, inexpensive bumpstocks perform. gunfire attach a highcapacity magazine, like this one that holds maybe 100 rounds, and these weapons become virtually indistinguishable from automatic weapons. Another common modification is the socalled gat crank, where this small silver crank is inserted into the trigger mechanism of a semiautomatic weapon, making it act like a fullyautomatic one. These current modifications are not technically illegal, because, remember, a gun is only considered fully automatic if one pull of the trigger unleashes that continuous volley. These devices dont do that. They just dramatically speed up the actual firing mechanism of the gun, so they can still be legally sold to anyone under federal law. Right now, you can find them at Sporting Goods stores, at walmart, and all over the internet. For the pbs newshour, im william brangham. Woodruff the attack has opened up once again many questions over guns. Its a debate that comes up repeatedly after Mass Shootings. But little has changed in many years. Were going to begin our own series of conversations on the subject tonight. And for that, we are joined by democratic senator Richard Blumenthal of connecticut, and senator, thank you for joining us. I want to ask you about this new information that the shooter was apparently able to modify some of these weapons in order to make them even more lethal. What does that say to you . If evidence of the use of a bump stock as well as semiautomatic weapon, a weapon of war, along with a highcapacity magazine shows the need to ban those devices, which are designed simply to kill and maim other human beings. They have no legitimate wreck relational or recreational or hunting purpose. What it shows me very dramatically is nothing has changed since the tragedy of newtown, connecticut, when the same kinds of weapons, semiautomatic, were used to kill 20 beautiful children and six great educators. Woodruff what could be done about these socalled bump stocks, this relatively inexpensive device . Very simply they should be banned. We have a bill to do so which well introduce, as well as banning the semiautomatic, which were designed as weapons of war along with the high capacity magazines. All of these devices very simply enable the kind of mass shooting that unfortunately occurs all too often and obviously in las vegas caused heartbreaking, gutwrenching kind of tragedy we saw. Woodruff senator, we see after almost every one of these Mass Shootings an examination of what kind of gun the perpetrator used and then an movement to do something about that weapon or that device, but nothing much if anything has come of it. What makes you think that now the time is right to try again . This nation often reaches a tipple point, as it did after the near assassination of Ronald Reagan, but it took ten years. So its a marathon, not a sprint, and what we need to recognize is that the Tipping Point comes through awareness and education and continued persistent advocacy, which is to mobilize people in the same way the nra has done. The major obstacle to common sense measures like background checks and the ban on assault weapons and highcapacity magazines and bump stocks and closing a number of the loopholes that enable domestic violence, which is a major cause of d