I'm an OIF vet and have fired thousands of rounds from several different assault rifles, including an M-16 A2, AR-15 and an AK-47.
Without even listening to any audio or watching any video, I'm thinking it's utterly impossible for one shooter to squeeze off that many rounds in the allotted time frame.
Even if he was using 100 round drum magazines on an AK, he would have had to stop and allow the barrel to cool after 2 drums.
I understand they say he had something like 23 weapons in his room and loads of ammo, so maybe it could be possible if he had all the guns fully loaded and was going from one to the next in rapid succession.
Even then, though, doesn't seem possible.
As far as a cover up, I wouldn't put anything past the government.
However, it's also possible that even they don't have all the facts yet.
You are absolutely correct! I'm a Nam vet and completely agree. I saw some pics of the inside of his room and 200 round double drums. But as you say those are designed for semi-auto weapons... you couldn't keep firing without letting the barrel cool. That's why they stopped making drum mags for Tommy guns. The barrels heated up and warped, the rounds jammed and the barrels blew.
I watched the videos and at times it sounded like more than one weapon at a time. I could hear an AR-15 and an AK (They sound nothing alike) There was more than one shooter
Yes sorry you're right the AK drum mags are 200 rounds each and not 100. My mistake.
I agree with you 100% that there was more than one shooter. Ballistic forensics are advanced enough today that they should easily be able to determine the trajectories of most of those rounds. This would be enough to tell them how many shooters there were and where they were positioned.
You have combat experience so you know how difficult it would be for one person to let off all of those rounds in that time frame, with so many rounds hitting people.
If 500+ people were hit with one or more rounds, that mean he probably had to let off over 1000 rounds at least. I still don't see one person doing that much damage in 8 minutes.
It wasn't a standard 200 round AK mag it was one of those plastic double drums (I'm not sure what they're called) I'm a 1 shot 1 kill guy. It wouldn't be difficult for one guy to do that much damage in that time... It would be impossible! I was a sniper and I'm not that good.
I've been following the story and I'm hearing chatter about a shooter in the crowd. There's a good video on Y-Tube by Jay Myers Documentaries... it has a lot of esoteric stuff, but other than that it's pretty concise.