Some of the biggest stars in country music took to social media Monday morning to react to the horrific mass shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas Sunday night that claimed the lives of at least 50 people and injured more than 400 others.
Suspected shooter Stephen Paddock, 64, reportedly opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday night, as tens of thousands of attendees listened to musician Jason Aldean perform at the Route 91 country music festival near the hotel.
Country music stars including Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, and Carrie Underwood all took to their social media accounts to express their grief over the incident and to share prayers for the country.
Aldean, who was onstage performing at the time of the shooting, previously shared a statement on his Instagram account.
“Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still don’t know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe,” the 40-year-old “Dirt Road Anthem” singer wrote. “My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night.”
Country music star Jake Owen was also on site during the shooting and described the horror in a post in an interview with NBC News.
“It got faster and faster, almost like it sounded like it was an automatic rifle. You could hear it ringing off the tops of the rafters of the stage. That’s when you saw people fleeing,” he told NBC. “At that point, everyone on stage just started running everywhere possible. It was pretty chaotic for sure.”
“Everyone’s asking if everyone’s okay. There was blood on people. You can see a couple of folks in the street that looked like they had been shot, lying there,” he added. “It was chaotic. It was literally like a movie that you feel like that you’ve seen before that’s not real life.”
In addition to the reaction from country music stars, numerous celebrities took to social media to call for increased gun control measures in the immediate aftermath of the attack Monday morning.
“I will also do everything in my power to get Congress to pass comprehensive gun reform so these types of tragedies don’t happen anymore,” tweeted music mogul Russell Simmons.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum