At a time when 58 civilians were gunned down and over 400 were wounded by a lone shooter in Las Vegas on Sunday night, the White House on Monday said that it is "premature" to have a discussion on gun control laws at this time.
The gunman, identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, opened fire with a machine gun on people enjoying a country music festival in Las Vegas. He reportedly shot at the concertgoers from the 32nd floor of a hotel located near the concert venue. Authorities later found multiple firearms in his hotel room and his home.
While media across the world is highlighting the gun problem in the United States in the wake of the nation's worst mass shooting in its modern history, and stressing the need for gun control, the Trump administration is of the opinion that this is not the time to debate the issue.
Le Monde, a leading French newspaper, observed that the United States, "with 85 arms per 100 inhabitants, is also the Western country where the proportion of deaths by gunshots is the highest."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a news briefing, said that "there's a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country."
"It would be premature for us to discuss policy" when all the facts about the event are known, Ms Sanders said.
"But that's not the place that we are in at the moment," she added.
US President Donald Trump addressed the nation soon after the tragic incident took place, however in a break with his predecessor Barack Obama, Trump did not call for tougher gun laws in the country to stop such incidents.
The US President, in fact, did not mention terrorism or gun control in his remarks about the incident, and said that the Las Vegas shooting was an "act of pure evil."
Sanders went on to say that "laws...won't create or stop these type of [shootings] from happenin," suggesting the Trump administration's position on any future legislation proposed for limiting the use of firearms in the country.
Trump, in April 2017, had told the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) that the arms group and its members "have a true friend and champion in the White House."
