Santa Fe Station hosting gun show near Oct. 1 shooting anniversary
Santa Fe Station will host a gun show Saturday and Sunday, just before the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 1 Las Vegas Strip shooting.
Tess Lange, of show organizer Western Trails, said she scheduled the show before the shooting happened and that she feels for those impacted directly and indirectly.
“I understand what they are going through — I am a mother too,” Lange said. “Whatever that guy did, that’s his responsibility. It’s not the gun’s fault. It is the guy who picked up the gun.”
Shooting survivor Heather Sallan of Reno said she is offended by the gun show’s timing.
Sallan worked as a vendor at the Route 91 Harvest music festival targeted by a lone gunman on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
Gun shows, Sallan said, make it too easy for gun buyers to get around federal background checks.
“If people have concerns about large amounts of guns being brought into hotel rooms, they may want to think about the gun shows,” she said.
The gunman had brought 24 guns into Mandalay Bay before his attack.
Another survivor, Stacie Armentrout, who lives in the Las Vegas area, said the show does not have an impact on her.
Armentrout said she wants people to concentrate on gun law reform, like better background checks for people buying firearms and better tracking nationwide of who owns a firearm.
She herself has a license to carry a concealed firearm, Armentrout said.
“It wasn’t the gun that did this,” she said.
Lori Nelson, a spokeswoman for Station Casinos, which owns Santa Fe Station, declined to comment.
Contact Wade Tyler Millward at 702-383-4602 or wmillward@reviewjournal.com. Follow @wademillward on Twitter.