Las Vegas: a gunman kills 58 people and injures more than 500

On Sunday night, at 22:05, a gunman opened fire on concertgoers in Las Vegas. The horror unfolded as the gunman, Stephen Paddock , was holed up on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Hotel and fired down on the crowd in sustained bursts for 10 minutes.

Las Vegas concert gunman Stephen Paddock was a wealthy former accountant and high-stakes gambler who appeared to be living in quiet retirement with his girlfriend in a desert community.

The 64-year-old, of Mesquite, Nevada, had pilot's and hunting licences and no criminal record, said authorities.

One former neighbour said twice-divorced Paddock was "weird".

But his brother described him as a regular guy who liked playing video poker, live music and eating burritos.

The police SWAT team closed in but the gunman shot himself before police could apprehend him. They found 23 guns in his hotel room .

Paddock used a legal but controversial device that enabled him to fire hundreds of rounds per minute. They’re known as bump-stocks and were found on 12 of the 23 guns.

Police say that the gunman who killed almost 60 people at a concert in Las Vegas had outfitted a legal but controversial accessory onto 12 of his semi-automatic rifles to enable them to fire hundreds of rounds per minute.

Officials say that theses devices - known as bump-stocks - have been found along with 23 guns inside Stephen Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

Bump-stocks, or slide fire adapters, allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a high rate, similar to a machine gun, but can be obtained without the extensive background checks required of purchasing automatic weapons.

This is hailed as the deadliest gun massacre in modern US history. The victims included military veterans, nurses and teachers . President Donald Trump to send his condolences after the shooting. He later made an address to the nation .

US mass shootings are getting worse . One of the big debates right now is why Stephen Paddock isn't being described as a terrorist by officials and media organisations. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the second amendment of the US constitution, and gun control laws won’t change any time soon . US Senator Don Gustavson says the citizens’ rights to bear arms outweighs the risk of them being misused.

As details emerge about the Las Vegas gunman who killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500 others, an online debate has begun about why Stephen Paddock has not been labelled a terrorist.

Instead the 64-year-old who opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel towards an open-air music festival on Sunday evening has been described by news outlets as a "lone wolf", a "granddad", a "gambler", and a "former accountant", but not a terrorist.

We do not know yet what motivated Paddock to carry out the deadly attack. There has been no link found to international terrorism and no confirmation of mental illness.

In the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, gun control advocates are renewing calls for tightening regulation on firearms.

If the story sounds familiar, it's because a similar dynamic has played out time and time again in recent years, after every new gut-wrenching incident of gun violence makes headlines.

On the federal level, at least, the interest and attention in new legislation has led to almost no action in decades, despite numerous polls showing widespread public support for measures like strengthened background checks and banning certain types of high-capacity gun magazines and military-style assault rifles.