White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the White House briefing on October 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. US President Donald Trump sent his "warmest condolences" Monday to the victims and families of a shooting at a concert in Las Vegas which has killed at least 50 people. White House spokesman Sarah Sanders said separately that the president had been briefed on "the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas" on Sunday night. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the day after the deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s history is not the time to renew a debate over gun control.
Sanders was asked Monday during the press briefing that there is a “time and place” for a debate but that is “not the place we’re in at this moment.”
She said President Donald Trump was focused on the victims and stressed that it was a “time to unite the country.”
Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama frequently used mass shootings to call for stricter gun control laws. Trump did not mention firearms during his remarks earlier Monday after a gunman in Las Vegas and killed 58 people and injured at least 515 others.
The Republican president has cast himself as a friend to firearms owners and the powerful National Rifle Association lobby.
