Trump silent on gun control
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump condemned the massacre of at least 59 Las Vegas concert goers as an "act of pure evil" yesterday, but refrained from addressing calls for gun control or the motives for the worst mass shooting in recent US history.
Delivering televised remarks, Trump tried to offer consolation and called for unity — an act that has become a grim rite of passage for modern US presidents.
Barack Obama wept as he tried to soothe the nation after the 2012 Sandy Hook primary school shooting, George W. Bush told Americans that the "nation grieves" after a similar outrage at Virginia Tech university.
Trump ordered that flags be flown at half-staff until sunset Friday, offered prayers for the victims and announced he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Later, he led White House staff on the South Lawn for a moment of silence.
"In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one — and it always has," Trump said.
Police have identified the gunman behind the Sunday night massacre — which injured more than 500 people — as a 64-year-old former accountant named Stephen Craig Paddock, who killed himself before a SWAT team breached his 32nd floor hotel room.
Investigators recovered at least 16 guns, including assault rifles, from Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay, and another 18 firearms along with bomb-making materials at one of his two homes.
Officials have reacted cautiously to an Islamic State group claim that Paddock was a "soldier of the caliphate" but while his motive remained unclear, the shooting instantly rekindled the divisive national debate on gun control.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that now was not the time for politics, a tactic frequently used by gun advocates to diffuse public outrage.
"There's a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country," said Sanders.
Trump insisted, "our unity cannot be shattered by evil. Our bonds cannot be broken by violence." But in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, that unity was difficult to find.