Post Malone Lambasted for Riding Machine Gun Mounted Humvee in Las Vegas

Rapper Post Malone is getting some serious backlash from a video after he took a ride around Las Vegas atop a Humvee with what appeared to be a fully automatic machine gun.

The rapper is claiming the weapon was fake and he did not mean to upset anyone.

The “Rockstar” rapper posted the video Wednesday night riding in a turret on top of the vehicle. He was not holding the weapon, which appeared to be unloaded, but fans of the rapper quickly expressed disdain for driving around Las Vegas with an automatic firearm after October’s Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting.

The 22-year-old defended himself, saying the gun wasn’t real and that he was at an indoor shooting range in Vegas.

“the gun isn’t even real y’all. i was at battlefield vegas and they gave me a ride back in the Humvee. it really has nothing to do with anything. just was having fun. never thought anyone would assume that i was being disrespectful,” he wrote on Twitter.

A fan who says they live in Vegas defended him, saying that kind of behavior is “normal” in an area of the city.

“I live in Vegas and let me inform you that there’s an area out in the open that lets you drive army tanks and test all that stuff out, which he’s doing lol. It’s completely normal here,” they wrote.

The Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting killed 58 people and injured hundreds more when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from his 32nd floor hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay onto a crowd of over 20,000 people. By the time police gained access to his hotel room, Paddock had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the mouth.

Authorities have not released any information containing a motive in the months that have followed the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

Earlier this month, authorities announced that Marilou Danley, Paddock’s girlfriend, will not be charged in relation to the shooting. She was in the Philippines at the time of the mass shooting and investigators say she played no part in helping to carry out the attack.

However, local authorities said on Friday that the FBI is still investigating an unnamed person of interest. Earlier this month, Nicholas Crosby, the attorney for the Las Vegas police, said there are still “charges being investigated,” depending on the findings of the investigation. Still on Friday, authorities insisted that Paddock is believed to be the only shooter.