The US is in mourning after the worst mass shooting in its recent history which saw a 64-year-old former accountant Stephen Craig Paddock brutally killing at least 59 Las Vegas concert goers.

The carnage, described by US President Donald Trump as an “act of pure evil” on Monday, has yet again prompted calls for gun control, which is a contentious topic in the country.

While Trump chose to remain silent on the controversial subject, the White House too refrained from talking about the biggest elephant in the room in the aftermath of yet another shocking shooting episode.

Random shootouts are occurring with increasing frequency in the US, where the constitution grants citizens the "right to keep and bear arms," and activists are leading a fervent campaign for gun control. 

However, at the White House media briefing on Monday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared indifferent and repeatedly evaded questions on gun control asserting this was not the time for politics, which observers saw as a tactic frequently used by gun advocates to diffuse public outrage.

A journalist was first to raise the contentious topic. “Has this particular massacre made the president think anything more about pursuing tighter gun laws, such as background checks, to prevent massacres like this from happening again?” he asked.

To which, Sanders' response was predictable. “Look, this is an unspeakable tragedy. Today is a day for consoling the survivors and mourning those we lost. Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with all of those individuals. There's a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country. There is currently an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation. A motive is yet to be determined, and it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don't fully know all the facts or what took place last night.”

Another White House correspondent followed up on his colleague’s question, asking whether the US president believes “that this is a time when this should not be a political discussion, it should be a policy discussion?” He asked: Does he believe that he could bring something new to the gun debate that has been, I guess, locked in typical politics for so many years?

Sanders continued in the same evasive manner: “I think today is more, again, like I said, a day of reflection, a day of mourning, a day of gratefulness for those that were saved. And I think that there will be, certainly, time for that policy discussion to take place, but that's not the place that we're in at this moment. But certainly, I think that there's a time for that to happen.”

The journalist remained persistent on the topic. Citing the fact that Trump, some 15 or 16 years ago, held a different view on guns than he had during last year's election, he asked whether the president “could lead a bipartisan effort on at some point?”

Sanders gave in to some extent at this point hinting that a bipartisan effort could be a way forward, however cautioning that “we don't want to… create laws that won't stop these types of things from happening.”

“I think if you look to Chicago, where you had over 4,000 victims of gun-related crimes last year, they have the strictest gun laws in the country. That certainly hasn't helped there, so I think we have to - when that time comes for those conversations to take place, then I think we need to look at things that may actually have that real impact,” the White House press secretary said. 

Meanwhile, Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton hit out at the gun manufacturers lobby - the National Rifle Association (NRA) - which has backed a congressional push to make it easier to obtain a gun silencer.

"The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer," tweeted Clinton, whose Democratic Party has tried in vain to introduce lasting gun control measures.

"Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again."

There have already been over 270 mass shootings in the United States this year alone, according to www.massshootingtracker.org. 

Gun violence accounts for more than 33,000 deaths each year in the US, and, according to the latest Gallup poll, 55 percent of American voters would like to see stricter rules for buying guns.

The issue is highly emotive in the US and Trump's own views have changed markedly over his years in public life.

After the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Trump appeared to favor stricter rules. But since then Trump - whose White House bid was endorsed by the NRA - has positioned himself as a defender of the constitutional "right to keep and bear arms," reported AFP.

The NRA donated an estimated 30 million US dollar to Trump's campaign in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Las Vegas shooting has brought the contentious topic of gun control to the forefront, thereby providing Trump with an opportunity to bring a tough and bipartisan law on gun ownership in the US. But will the US President show enough will?

(With input from agencies)