Nights ago, a terrifying, almost endless hailstorm of bullets that left almost 600 people dead or wounded, is that just something were all willing to live with . What one survivor called the tragic cost of freedom. Its a tragic cost of freedom that people can do bad things. If you can find a gun law that could prevent this from happening, i could sign up today. But i am proud of our countrys Second Amendment rights and im glad were allowed to defend ourselves. We now know the gunman behind this attack, the deadliest mass shooting in modern u. S. History, had built up a vast stockpile of firearms, all of them apparently, as far as we know now, purchased legally. We got our first glimpse of those weapons today. In this new video taken outside stephen Paddocks Hotel almost. Through the door you can see what appears to be one of the gunmans highpowered rifles mounted on a shooting bipod to design more stability for the longrange firing he was planning. According to an internal luchlt document seen by nbc news, 23 total firearms were found in that hotel suite at the mandalay bay hotel. Another 19 found at the gunmans home north of las vegas. This man managed to get his hands on 42 guns, at least should have them semiautomatic, plus explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Law enforcement Officials Say the gunman had two bump stocks, a completely legal device used to modify a semi ewe mac rifle to fire rapidly, as if it were fully automatic. It is clear from the videos, and particularly the audio from the night of the attack, those bump stocks worked largely as designed. We are talking about weapons of war, which was exactly what it felt like sunday night, according to an afghanistan veteran i talked to today who was working security at the music festival. Did it feel like a war zone to you . Yeah, actually did. I was involved in an encounter a few years ago, in the line of duty incident. But nothing like this. Nothing like a barrage of gunfire coming in, multiple casualties coming in. After everything ive done and been through, i mean, i dont ive never seen anything like this. Much more of that interview ahead. The president is due right here in las vegas tomorrow to meet with victims and First Responders. This morning he told reporters hell eventually get around to talking gun policy. Look, we have a tragedy. Were going to do and what happened in las vegas is in many ways a miracle. The Police Department has done such an incredible job. And well be talking about gun laws as time goes by. But in talking points given out to political ool lies obtained by nbc news, when it comes to gun control lets be clear, new laws wont stop a madman committed to harming innocent people, they will curtail the freedoms of lawabiding citizens. Theres as little appetite about real gun safety event among republican lawmakers including those that represent nevada. That dialogue does need to occur but i dont think now is the time for this. We have a lot of victims. We have a lot of survivors. Yeah, i think its particularly inappropriate to politicize an event like this. It just happened within the last day and a half. Its entirely premature to be discussing about legislative solutions, if any. Theres time in the coming weeks to find those answers and do those sorts of things that we need to do and see what the lessons are learned. But i think right now its just that humility, thoughts and prayers to those folks that are affected. Im not for changing the law right now. I am against politicizing this. According to senator john thud, the thirdranking in the senate, its on all of us in the public to learn how to live with the threat of gun violence. All of us want to do everything we can to prevent tragedies like that from happening again. You know, its an open owe site. When somebody does what he wants to, do its going to be hard but i think people have to be are going to have to take steps in their own lives to take precautions and protect themselves. And in situations like that, you know, try and stay safe. As somebody said, get small. Senator richard blumenthal, democrat from connecticut, site of the sandy hook shooting almost five years ago. First your response to your colleagues advice to get small, that people should think about their personal actions in how to avoid getting shot. Chris, america is not small. We have big events, we take pride in our sports and entertainment and concerts. And its on us to take action to eliminate gun violence. And as for now being premature, our thoughts and prayers certainly go out to the families today and yesterday were absolutely painful in recalling that day in newtown years ago. I was with a number of the families tonight. But we should honor the victims by action. We should honor the families by stronger measures, to make america safer, and its within our power to do so, not think small. I want to present what seems to me the only sort of salvageable core point, and its a profound one, of people being very honest about the price of freedom. The idea that in a free society, you do not have a police state, certain risks will happen. You want to have, for instance, open Public Events where people can go publicly and not have to check everyones name or have everybody going through metal detectors all the time. And that essentially this is a tolerable risk in a free society. What do you say to that . We have a death rate from gun violence that is way higher than any other open society among industrial nations. 90plus people every day die in america as a result of gun violence. Which is a rate that is astronomically higher than others. And so we have the power, and i respect the Second Amendment, but we have the authority under that amendment to take action that would ban, for example, the assault weapons and the bump stocks and the highcapacity magazines that are essential to many of these mass killings. And to impose background checks to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Close loopholes that will make us safer. We wont prevent every death as a result of gun violence, but we can dramatically reduce it. And we should not settle, america should not be a smaller nation because we are reduced by fear and trepidation simply because dangerous people have such free access to guns. You just mentioned the Second Amendment. Notwithstanding the courts jurisprudence on this matter, you personally, do you believe the constitution protects the freedom to assemble an arsenal of 42 guns and thousands of rounds of ammo . Is that part of what the constitution protects . In no way does the Second Amendment prevent the United States congress from banning assault weapons. They are weapons of war. They were designed to kill and maim human beings, not to hunt or do recreation. And bump stocks simply enable people to evade the law by converting those semiautomatics into automatics and do the kind of carnage that we saw so unspeakably the night before last. And as for the highcapacity magazines, i know no hunter who uses a highcapacity magazine. So the Second Amendment permits reasonable, commonsense measures. The United States constitution has said there is a Second Amendment right. But americans, 90 of all americans, believe that background checks should be done to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. And in fact, the law right now, and its been upheld, prevents certain people to have weapons, like people with felony records. So the Second Amendment is the law of the land. But it is not absolute. When your colleagues talk about politicizing this, when they talk about now being not the right time, do you think theyre fundamentally being disingenuous or do you think thats an earnest expression . The time for euphemisms and evasion is over. The time for action is now. My heart thats not an answer to the question, though. I think that the time for action is now and would not involve politicizing this horrific tragedy. You know, the night after the sandy hook tragedy, i went to one of the many calling hours that i did for the parents. And i approached one of the moms to express my condolences and to say, when youre ready, we should consider what the next steps are to prevent this kind of tragedy. And she said, and ill never forget the tears in her eyes. Im ready now. Honoring those victims is not politicizing this tragedy. It is to take action to prevent these tragedy in the future. Senator richard blumenthal, i appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. David chipman, former special agent of the atf who works for the Gun Safety Group started by former congressman gabby giffords. You saw i think what happens here, which is a sort of argument on principle about one of open societys willing to tolerate, our constitution, that slides into technical questions. And those technical questions are a tear rain the nra is very effective at battling on, even when the commonsense argument for, say, the device that converts a semi to something that could sort of fire automatically doesnt seem particularly compelling. Do the terms of that debate end of being selfdefeating . I think so. I think when i talk about gun violence, you know, i rarely talk about guns. I talk about the shared belief that as americans we have to have the courage to figure out reasonable ways to keep guns out of the hands of people who will inflict harm on our nation. This notion that gun laws dont work, you know i simply reject. I dedicated 25 years of my life on the front lines serving as a federal agent where on a daily basis i was arresting and bringing into courts people i know would have killed someone that night if we hadnt have acted. Now im not naive, i know that there are gaps in these laws and thats what we talk about, these gaps. Las vegas, you know, the first thing that i thought about was, isnt it interesting that weve been fighting against the gun lobby, who doesnt want gun dealers to tell government when someone buys more than one long gun in a fiveday period, like they have to report for handguns. It would have been interesting for the government to know that someone had amassed this arsenal. Now perhaps there would have been nonissues of concern. But it might be worth the conversation, and i think our Law Enforcement, we need to trust them to have conversations, to investigate things. If not, really atf stands for after the fact. And our Law Enforcement is just coming in after something horrible has happened. I think our government has a responsibility to keep our citizens safe. And we have to balance that with freedom and responsibility. Jason, one of the things that happens in these discussions, you saw the white house talking points, im not sure if you saw them, they invoked chicago and baltimore, a common trope. These are places that have very strict gun laws. Obviously the high rates of gun violence that are largely committed by illegal guns. But there is this thing, attention focuses on the gun in instances like this because the sheer history horror of this particular event is astounding. But its a mismatch to the daily horror of what happens in communities like chicago and bat lower. Right. Remember the only reason the republicans and the Trump Administration mentioned chicago and baltimore is black people, race, lets talk about Something Else other than the issue thats important. Right now is the time that you have to talk about functional policy. If you see a car accident, thats when you should talk about safety belts. If your house burns down, thats when you talk about fire alarms. We should be talking about practical ways to prevent this from happening. I dont think its a good idea for us to just throw up or hands in society and say, well, getting shot randomly when you go to a Shopping Mall or casino is perfectly reasonable. You brought up an interesting point talking to the senator earlier. Part of the issue is the refusal on the part of some advocates for gun control to simply say, the other side is lying. The other side is being disingenuous. The other side is trying to avoid the issue. They want to talk about Everything Else other than the fact that you hive too many people in this country who have dangerous guns and that poses a threat to all of us. Until we can get to that core level of this conversation we end up spinning to circles and every five or six months hundreds and hundreds of people are negatively affected and many die. David, i think a lot of people have been looking at the reporting and saying, my god, 52 guns. I think the median number of guns in a gunopening household is eight . Thats partly due to the fact that fewer and fewer households are gunopening households but the households that do own guns own large arsenals. What does that mean, that 3 of American Adults own 50 of americas civilian guns . My experience is that some americans really value the right to own guns. They collect them. They even amass them for a whole host of different reasons. And theyre very intense about their beliefs. You know, what i try to strive to talk to people, im a concealed carry owner, i carry a gun for my safety, for 25 years on the job. I think most americans are in the middle, which is we recognize that as americans we exercise rights, we may buy guns for a whole host of reasons. But with that comes a responsibility. If youre going to carry a gun outside your home, youre going to require training. If you want to buy a gun or sell a gun, perhaps you have to fill out a form or pass a background check. You know, to me a lot of the people who value the right to have a gun seem to not want to exercise the responsibilities that help cops keep people safe. So to me, when someone says, hey, its inconvenient to fill out a background check, or fill out a federal form, its inconvenient to have to answer the questions of cops. I can tell you what inconvenient is. Inven is waking up at 6 00 in the morning, putting on your bulletproof vest, kicking down a door to get someone who already has a gun and hope you dont get killed. Inconvenient is what happened to my boss, gabby giffords. Inconvenient is whats happened to all the people in las vegas. To me, like most americans, i believe are with us in saying, hey, there are a whole host of reasonable things that we can do. And i hope we start having the courage to really talk about it. Right. Jason, you agree . Yeah, i agree. Look, there are so many restrictions that we think are reasonable in this country. We drive a car, you have to have insurance. If i use my credit card too much the weekend the bank calls me and says, is this really you . Why is it that im able to buy 12 guns and no agency calls and says, hey, are you about to do something dangerous . These are reasonable things that we should expect for our own safety. All right, david chipman, jason johnson, thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Still to come, from a war zone overseas to the american war zone right behind me in las vegas, my interview with the Security Team working the concert who say sundays shooting was worse than anything theyve ever seen. Ah, dinner. Throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. Just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh . Hey . I paused it. Bam, family time. So how is everyone . Find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. We have multiple casualties be advised it is automatic fire, fully automatic fire an elevated position, take cover. Severed arteries, medical check weve got about 40 to 50 people pinned against this wall. Over the police dispatch, it sounded like what youd expect in a war zone. Automatic fire from elevated position. New video tonight filmed by a woman who took cover in the bleachers shows people risking their lives to administer cpr to victims in front of the stage as shots were still raining down from above. After the break my conversation with two concert security guards who were treating the wounded on what felt like a battlefield. Youre performing cpr on one person and youre doing compressions and breathing, compressions, breathing, checking for pulse. And then after doing that two or three times theres no pulse. We were having to literally get and up move on to the next person. This was a battle feel. We respond to shootings and car wrecks that are tragic events. However this one, the sheer magitude of the amount of people, how it went down, the elevated gunfire, the massive amounts of gunfire, it was literally a battleground. Greg cassell was not only one describing the scene as a battleground. First responders, survivors, members of the bands from the outdoor concert were calling it a war zone. Earlier today i got a chance to speak with two men who worked security at sundays event, one of whom had served in afghanistan, darius harp customer dylan christos wa part of the Extraction Team at the concert, made up of security guards who remove anyone who is intoxicated or unwell or causing trouble. Despite their years and years of experience, nothing prepared them for what they encountered that night. We thought it was fireworks. You know, i even looked at him, we got pyro . He goes, i dont know, do we have pyro . We were thinking fireworks. So i looked over, to see if there was anything, there was nothing there. Then the second burst came in and we realized it was gunfire. In that moment youre thinking, they didnt tell us about pyro, youre looking to see where the flares are. Flashes in the sky. The second volley, thats when it clicks in your head. Yeah. When you hear that second volley, what did you do . We kind of looked at each other in shock. Because at that point it sounded as if it was inside the park. You thought it might be someone with a weapon there in the venue . Correct. And at that point we turned and headed into the crowd. We were just seeing gunshot injury after gunshot injury. There was a couple of people laying on the ground, unresponsive. We figured they had been deceased. So at that point in time we did what we could to get people in the medic tent, triage as much as we could. Still more injuries by the gates. We ran down there. I remember having to grab anything we could to perform as a gurney. So we used anything that had wheels on it. Trash cans, wheelbarrows. Injured people, putting bodies on there . Literally putting them in, wheeling them out, just to get them out. One young lady, she came out of nowhere, she said, ive been shot. She collapsed right on me. We did