Man charged after AR-15 rifle and pressure cooker found in his car near Chicago airport

A man from Wisconsin has been charged after police found an AR-15 rifle, ammunition and a pressure cooker in his car as he was pulled over for speeding. Santos Zamora, 32, was stopped in Cumberland as he travelled from O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, on Saturday 7 October.

Authorities recovered the rifle, 217 rounds of ammo and the pressure cooker in his vehicle, WGN-TV reported. The FBI determined that the cooker was used to make food and was not intended as a weapon.

Zamora, who was in town to drop off a friend at the airport, was charged with one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and for driving above the speed limit. He also received one traffic citation for operating a motor vehicle without insurance.

The charges come as the US is still reeling from the Las Vegas mass shooting, which resulted in the death of 58 people after a gunman opened fire on concertgoers from a hotel room across the street.

Stephen C Paddock, 64, launched his massacre during the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday 1 October. He shot people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, before police found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police recovered more than 40 weapons belonging to Paddock. At least 23 were in his hotel room and included assault-style rifles that appeared to have been modified to convert them into machine guns, so that he could fire more rounds faster.

The Las Vegas attack, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, reignited a debate on gun control in the US, where the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees citizens "the right to keep and bear arms". Federal laws set minimum standards for gun regulation, but individual states can implement their own laws.