Former College Professor Kills Three on Las Vegas Campus
Three people were killed and one was wounded Wednesday in a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) campus....
Facts
- Three people were killed and one was wounded Wednesday in a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) campus.1
- The gunman, identified as 67-year-old Anthony Polito, was killed in a shootout with law enforcement. According to reports, Polito, a career college professor, was recently denied a job at the university.2
- Police received reports of shots fired on the campus around 11:45 a.m. (local time) before students and professors were instructed to barricade themselves inside. Two university detectives confronted the suspect, who was in the university's business building when he was killed in a shootout.3
- Police have not named any of the victims, but media reports currently suggest that no students were among those killed.4
- Wednesday's shooting marks the 80th school shooting and 631st mass shooting of 2023 in the US. UNLV is located near the site of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival mass shooting, which killed more than 58 people and wounded hundreds.5
- Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference that law enforcement currently has 'no idea on the motive.' Authorities have not yet released any information on the weapon used in the shooting.4
Sources: 1CBS, 2Guardian, 3Associated Press, 4BBC News and 5CNN.
Narratives
- Republican narrative, as provided by Breitbart. Once again, strict gun laws didn't prevent a mass shooting in the US. The UNLV campus is a gun-free zone, which could have prevented a responsible citizen from intervening in this tragedy. This is why restricting the gun rights of law-abiding citizens is a misdirected policy that sometimes leads to tragic results.
- Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. Mass shootings in the US are becoming so common, it's not surprising when one person witnesses one or more in a week. Yet even on the day of the Vegas shooting, Republicans in Congress — who believe 2nd Amendment rights should prevail over public safety laws — yet again blocked an assault weapons ban that Democrats had put forward.
