Member of Texas-based country band caught in Las Vegas shooting: 'We need gun control RIGHT. NOW.'



Click ahead to see how politicians and celebrities reacted to the Las Vegas shooting. less This photo shows singer Josh Abbott of the Texas-based Josh Abbott Band performing during the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas hours before a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Guitarist Caleb Keeter said the massacre changed his views on gun control: "I've been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night," Keeter said on Twitter. This photo shows singer Josh Abbott of the Texas-based Josh Abbott Band performing during the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas hours before a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Guitarist Caleb ... more Photo: Mindy Small/FilmMagic Photo: Mindy Small/FilmMagic Image 1 of / 131 Caption Close Member of Texas-based country band caught in Las Vegas shooting: 'We need gun control RIGHT. NOW.' 1 / 131 Back to Gallery

The guitarist for the Lubbock-based Josh Abbott Band said the massacre in Las Vegas changed his views on gun control.

The band performed at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, a three-day event on the Strip, at 4 p.m. Sunday, just hours before a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, killing 58 concert-goers and wounding more than 500.

"I've been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night," Caleb Keeter said on Twitter. "I cannot express how wrong I was."

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Keeter said some of the band's crew members have licenses to carry concealed handguns and had firearms on their bus at the time of the shooting.

"They were useless," he said. "We couldn't touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us."

As gunfire rained down on the crowd, Keeter said he wrote a goodbye to his parents and "the love of my life." Crew members near Keeter were hit with gun shrapnel as victims nearby were hit with bullets, he said.

"We need gun control RIGHT. NOW," he said. "My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn't realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it. We are unbelievably fortunate to not be among the number of victims killed or seriously wounded by this maniac."

kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5