A firearms dealer who sold “several' guns to Las Vegas mass murderer Stephen Paddock has defended his shop and claimed there were “no red flags” that might have prevented the sale.

David Famiglietti said the sales were conducted “lawfully” at his New Frontier Armory (sic).

The Vice President of the Nevada Firearms coalition, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, added that his staff have received threats and abuse since it emerged the shop sold weapons to the 64-year-old who slaughtered 58 people and injured 489 more.

Paddock then turned one of the guns on himself.

Mr Famiglietti admitted his staff sold "a few guns this year" to Paddock, who opened fire on crowds at a country music festival from the 32nd floor of Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Some of his weapons had been modified with bump stock devices to make them perform like automatic weapons which are banned in the US.

Mr Famigletti told the New Yorker he had sold Paddock a shotgun with an “effective range” of 30 yards and “a rifle that did not leave my store as a machine gun, nor did it leave my store modified (legally or illegally) in any way to shoot more than one round per pull of the trigger”.

The gun dealer told NBC News that Paddock visited his store in the spring, and in a separate interview told the BBC the weapons the killer bought from his shop were not “capable of what we’ve seen and heard in the video without modification”.

"Since the release of the news that we were one of several stores that Paddock had purchased firearms from in the area, myself and my employees have been receiving hate mail and threats, threatening phone calls and messages, and people leaving fake reviews of our company on various platforms," Mr Famiglietti wrote in a release posted to the company's Facebook page.

“Even though to us this is not important at the moment, we ask that people funnel their anger where it belongs instead of threatening and hurting others."

Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People carry a person at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after shots were fired David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A handout photo released via Twitter by Eiki Hrafnsson (@EirikurH) showing concertgoers running away from the scene (C) after shots range out at the Route 91 Harvest festival on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA/Eiki Hrafnsson Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People lie on the ground at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A man in a wheelchair is taken away from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People stand on the street outside the Mandalay Bay hotel near the scene of the Route 91 Harvest festival on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA/Paul Buck Las Vegas shooting – in pictures FBI agents confer in front of the Tropicana hotel-casino after a mass shooting during a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Las Vegas police run by a banner on the fence at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival grounds after shots were fired David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures An injured person is tended to in the intersection of Tropicana Ave. and Las Vegas Boulevard after a mass shooting at a country music festival Ethan Miller/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Metro Police officers pass by the front of the Tropicana hotel-casino after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip AP/John Locher Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A cowboy hat lays in the street after shots were fired near a country music festival in Las Vegas Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Las Vegas Metro Police and medical workers stage in the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard South after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Sheriff Joe Lombardo (2-R) speaking during a press briefing in the aftermath of the active shooter incident on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA

He added: “It’s no different from blaming Mandalay Bay for booking the hotel room, the State of Nevada DPS or the FBI for giving us the authority to transfer the weapon – it obviously wasn’t done with malicious intent."

He said the shop was co-operating fully with all law enforcement agencies in the investigation into Paddock.

“Stephen Paddock did purchase several firearms through our retail store in North Las Vegas earlier this year. All state and federal requirements were met including a background check by the Nevada Department of Public Safety, as well as a full FBI NICS background check before he was able to take possession of the firearms he had purchased.

“My entire staff takes their job very seriously and if there were any ‘red flags’ during this transaction, like any other, it would have been halted immediately."

Unlike semi-automatic guns, fully automatic weapons, or machine guns, are tightly regulated by the US federal government. But owning one is not illegal, provided it was made before 1986 and properly registered.

It has been reported that Paddock had two “bump stocks” among his arsenal – perfectly legal devices that make it possible to shoot a semiautomatic weapon at a machine-gun-like rate.

Mr Famiglietti, a staunch supporter of the constitutional right to bear arms, said it was frustrating that people insisted on blaming “tools” instead of the person pulling the trigger.

“I sell tools, 99 per cent of the time, they are used lawfully. I can’t fix the rest, unfortunately, just like the CEO of Ford or Chevy can’t stop people from killing people with their cars.”

He added that it was tiresome having to constantly “dispel myths” about the nature of guns and gun ownership in the US in order to combat what he called the “false info out there”.

“I urge people that want to be ‘against’ something with such passion to take the time to educate themselves first.”

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He acknowledged that the state of Nevada is “very gun friendly” with a tradition of hunting and sports shooting.

But he said that with more people from California and other states which favour tighter gun control moving there, the Las Vegas metropolitan area is “becoming more and more anti-gun every year.”

He said he felt anger towards politicians and campaigners who called for tighter gun laws in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.

He pointed to tweets from Hillary Clinton, one of which said: “The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silence which the NRA wants to make easier to get.”

Describing Paddock as a “nut job”, Mr Famiglietti said: “Las Vegas, especially the Strip, is a very target-rich environment for a mass murder. I’ve always said, in the back of my mind, that I was surprised something like this hasn’t happened sooner.”

Mr Famiglietti insisted that “well aimed shots” fired one at a time from a legal weapon could have done “just as much” harm as the deadly hailstorm unleashed by Paddock, whose motives remain a mystery.

An analysis of video of the shooting suggests that in a ten-second burst, Paddock fired roughly ninety times into the crowd of people enjoying a country music festival – which could not possibly have been done with a non-automatic weapon.

Californian Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein – who said her daughter almost went to the music festival turned massacre – this week proposed legislation that would ban bump stocks.