I’ve been hesitant to write this article. I hate conspiracy theories and I really do believe now is a time to grieve and discuss the future of gun control and what we can do to stop these things from happening.

The thing is; however, this shooting is very unique. Both demographically and strategically unique. This shooter is a different brand than anyone we’ve seen. There’s an overall feeling that something isn’t right with this. There’s something just a little off about what took place on Sunday, October 1^st.

1. The Cameras

The first thing that's a little bizarre to me is the cameras. According to the New York Post, Stephen Paddock (the 64-year old gunman) set up at least two to three cameras to tell when police would approach the room. The strange thing is that he also allegedly placed on in his hotel room as he fired. So, why have we not seen this footage? ABC released information last Wednesday showing raw footage of the hotel room in Mandalay Bay where Paddock carried out the attack. Obviously, the media is eager to show the public the most gruesome, up close footage, however, when they found the cameras, there seems to be no rush to release surveillance caught by the shooter himself. This means one of three things (or all of them): either 1) the cameras were never turned on to record 2) there's something else on the footage that we aren't supposed to see, or 3) the footage has been destroyed. Now this doesn't blame anyone other than Paddock, and I refuse to accuse anyone who allegedly breached or stormed the room to try and stop him, but something really doesn't make sense here. And if there's no footage, why did they not record? Maybe they just didn't work or Paddock ran out of time, but maybe not.

2. The Doors

Paddock stayed in room 32-135 at Mandalay Bay in the Vista Suite which was 2-bedroom. The layout released by the New York Times showed the two locations that Paddock shot from, one being in the bedroom and one in the common room. When the police breached the suite, they found the door to the bedroom locked, according to Heavy News. If this is true, why was it locked? Why would the gunman lock the door if he was planning on killing himself? One might say to cover his tracks or to make it more difficult for the police, but this makes no sense.

My roommate stayed in room 28-135, which is directly 4 floors below where Paddock launched his attack. The same layout of the suite, the same amenities, and the same size. According to her, the bedroom door can lock from the inside but you can still access the bedroom from the bathroom—which is a unique aspect to Mandalay Bay, well known to people who stay often at the luxury casino. While this fact can be disputed, it is important to recognize that the gunman may have known this when booking the hotel, and there is a large possibility that there was either 1) someone else in that hotel room who was trying to buy time or 2) there was something else in that room that Paddock wanted to stall SWAT from finding. Because you can access the bedroom from the bathroom, the SWAT team didn't have to breach the door like they did for the main and this, in consequent, somewhat diffused any questions as to why the main bedroom door was locked in the first place.

This is all vague and obviously, nothing is proven or set in stone, but it is strange.

I'm not saying there was a second gunman and I believe that Paddock did fire rounds into that crowd on October 1st, but it simply is so bizarre.

Also, most likely because of the chaos, there's little to no footage of the actual shooting coming from the windows. Now, I believe that people were shot from that 32nd-floor room, but there are some questions I have. During the nearly 11 minutes of shooting, after each round, there was a 37-second pause before he continued shooting. This is where I wonder if either Paddock used the time to reload or used it to switch angles, but I don't think there was enough room for both. I could be wrong, trust me, but I don't think almost 40 seconds would be enough time for Paddock to get up, switch rooms, and fire from another angle and then after running out of rounds, was able to get up, reload at the other window and shoot from there.

Most information stating which guns (out of Paddock's estimated 46 owned) were used has not been released or specified. Now, it was estimated by the New York Times that Paddock had legally modified at least 12 guns with bump-stocks to shoot automatically. 47 guns were found in his room, but there are many questions the publics been asking. For one, there's little to no information on which (of the 47 found in the room) were actually used for the shooting specifically (I'm talking actually aimed and fired out of Mandalay Bay's window on to the Route 91 Festival). So, either Paddock switched off each time he switched windows, or he had to have help from the other angle in order to match the time frame in which the massacre occurred.

3. Lack of Motive

As of October 8, police finally started revealing the possible motives behind the heinous crime. While the gunman's girlfriend and brother both stated to be in a state of shock because of Paddock's actions, it was found that a frequent escort hired by Paddock admitted to seeing a side of him that was violent and abusive, even playing out violent rape fantasies.

While mental illness has often been used as an excuse to answer the question as to why these things happen, this crime just doesn't seem to match. This attack was premeditated, intentional, and wanted to cause as much death as possible. The overall lack of motive besides mental illness seems to be a glaring issue in this case. Keep in mind that Stephen Paddock was 64 years old. For 64 years, Paddock never showed any signs of severe mental illness that would've raised flags. This is understandable, but it's difficult to accept the motive of mental illness when this crime was carried out with such anger, hate, and organization.

While CNN reported that the assumed "suicide note" left behind by Paddock was just calculations to hit the crowd, no media outlet has revealed the physical note itself. It may be that they're still examining it, however, to release the statement that it was just "calculations", there must have already been a conducted investigation. When mass murderer Charles Whitman killed 16 people in 1966, he left behind an infamous suicide note explaining his motive specifically and how he carried out the murders. Paddock also has been accused of trying to "mimic" the attack like Whitman's, so if that's the case at all, what is the hold up on Paddock's note and is it really just numbers?

This shooting was devastating and has rocked our nation to the core. Now is the time many of us are grieving and trying to understand what has happened. I absolutely don't doubt that Paddock was a shooter and I believe the bullets came out of room 32-135 in Mandalay Bay. With that being said, I do have serious questions as to why some parts of this are so bizarre. Now is the time we ask questions, now is the time we demand that we know exactly what happened and why this man chose to murder 59 people and injure at least 500 more. I would never blame or assume the worst of investigators, the government, or agencies trying to find information as to why this happened, but I really feel there are many answers we deserve to know and certain information that is being held from the public.

I want a better America and I want these kinds of things to stop happening. I want gun control and I want better mental health programs. In order to keep moving towards this, we need to ask questions and we need to demand change. We deserve to know why this happened and the families of those killed deserve to know why their loved ones were murdered while at a country music concert.

For the sake of everyone ever affected by a mass shooting, we need to know these answers in order to stop it from happening all over again.