U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) spoke on the Senate floor yesterday to commemorate eight years since the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre in Las Vegas.
Eight years ago, on Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire for about 10 minutes on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 60 people and injuring more than 850 others. Police later found the attacker, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in his hotel suite, where investigators recovered a cache of rifles and ammunition. Authorities say the massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in modern U.S. history.
Investigators documented that more than 400 people were hit by gunfire or shrapnel amid the panic of a crowd of roughly 22,000 concertgoers, with total injuries assessed at about 867. Paddock used rifles equipped with bump stocks to achieve rapid fire into the open-air venue across Las Vegas Boulevard. Officials closed the criminal case in 2018, concluding there was no second shooter and saying they could not determine a motive.
The death toll, initially 58, was revised to 60 in 2020 after two survivors died from complications of their wounds, according to authorities.
Watch Cortez-Masto’s statement in the video, which is also provided in text form below.
Her remarks were provided below:
M. President, I rise today to mark the eighth anniversary of the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
And today, as I give this speech, far too many Americans across the country are reeling from the pain of shootings in their own communities.
This country is seeing a horrifying increase in mass violence that doesn’t just destroy the lives of the victims; it tears apart families, it leaves loved ones with an unfillable hole in their hearts, and it brings communities to the breaking point.
I’ve seen it firsthand.
Eight years ago today, a man gunned down 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 800 people were wounded in the chaos, and two people later succumbed to their injuries.
That day and those that followed were some of the worst of my life. My niece was attending the festival, and I remember the overwhelming relief I felt to learn she was safe and okay.
But I also remember spending time at the Reunification Center with the families of missing festival attendees, praying with those families, crying with those families, watching them as they hoped their loved ones would return to them.
Some were lucky. Many were not.
Our city – our entire state – felt lost. But out of this horror came something miraculous.
In the aftermath of 1 October, Nevadans came together to support each other. People came out in droves to give blood; to donate money, food, and clothing; and to lend a helping hand to those who had lost so much.
Businesses, community organizations, and law enforcement did what they could to ease the burden on the families who had been impacted. I worked across the aisle with my Republican partner in the Senate at the time, Dean Heller, to get financial relief for the victims.
Our city united in the face of this tragedy, and we came out of it Vegas Strong. I am forever touched by those incredible efforts to shine a light in the darkness.
But even all that good cannot erase the scars left behind by this massacre.
Its victims were innocent people who went to a music festival to enjoy themselves. It didn’t matter what they did for work or what they believed or who they loved – they were gunned down indiscriminately.
In the eight years since this tragedy that shook my state to its core, we’ve sadly seen more violence erupting across the country. In places of worship, in schools, and in grocery stores.
As Americans, as Members of Congress, we have to continue speaking out against it. Violence is never the answer. We cannot survive in a country where this is the norm.
We have to be better.
For me, that means coming together to work on common sense solutions like finally banning bump stocks nationwide, passing comprehensive background checks to make sure criminals can’t exploit loopholes to buy deadly weapons, and delivering more support for mental health in this country.
And it also means always remembering the victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre. Grieving the lives they never got to live, and the families they never got to come home to or create, serves as a stark reminder of the horrors violence like this can cause. We owe it to them and to their loved ones to keep working together to end it.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, Las Vegas has rebuilt. We have risen from the ashes stronger than ever. But we will never forget the trauma inflicted on us that day.
That pain must fuel us to work together toward a better future for our children, for our families, and for our country.
