An evening of country music fun and celebration turned into the nation's deadliest mass shooting on Sunday night, October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

At least 58 people were killed with another 500+ injured when a gunman opened fire using one or more automatic weapons from his 32nd floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort on the famed Las Vegas Strip.  His targets were thousands of attendees at an adjacent open-air event center below him.

Las Vegas and the entire State of Nevada is protected by the finest law enforcement professionals in the world.  Their heroism is tested each and every day as they leave their families and do their jobs to protect and serve their communities.  In the midst of that slaughter, last night was a testament to their training, their experience and their courage as officers deployed rapidly to locate and neutralize the shooter to prevent even more carnage that would surely have occured.

We will leave the arduous task of investigating the what's, why's and how's of this tragedy to the men and women of public safety who do it best.  Our only reason for this short narration is to offer our prayers and condolences for the dead and injured, and to once again recognize the dedication that is in the hearts and souls of every first responding police officer, firefighter and paramedic, as well as the doctors, nurses, hospital workers and the hundreds of civilian heroes who make us proud to be Las Vegans, Nevadans and Americans.