Instead, he said his department has largely concentrated its mass-shooting training on schools and smaller structures. There are no easy solutions for stopping someone who is firing from a high elevation, like the Las Vegas gunman, he added

“How are we going to evolve our tactics to take out that shooter? I’m not sure there is a way to do that, quite frankly,” Sheriff Urquhart said. “My guess is that the best and quickest way to get him is to go up the stairs and take him out like he was on the first floor.”

Some larger, urban departments already train for an elevated gunman, said Mark Lomax, who handled training for the Pennsylvania State Police and later was executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association.

After the Las Vegas massacre, “there is going to be a lot more emphasis on out-of-reach situations, whether from a high-rise tower or a bridge,” said Mr. Lomax, who is now chief executive of Lancer Cobbs, a consulting firm near Philadelphia.

The University of Texas shooting, in which Charles Whitman killed 15 people and wounded at least 31 more using a stockpile of rifles, handguns and a shotgun before the police reached the top of the tower and killed him, was not the only previous high-rise shooting of significance.

In 1976, Michael Soles killed three people and wounded eight others from the 26th floor of a Holiday Inn in Wichita, Kan.; he could have shot more had it not been for a quick response that ended the carnage after 11 minutes. Police officers wounded Mr. Soles, who was later found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.