Donald Trump says he will 'talk about gun laws as time goes on' following unprecedented Las Vegas massacre

The President spoke on his way to Puerto Rico

Donald Trump has for the first time said his administration will be “talking about gun laws” - almost 36 hours after the nation’s worst mass shooting in modern history.

In the aftermath of the massacre in Las Vegas that left 59 people dead and 527 injured, Mr Trump addressed the country in a televised from the White House. “In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has,” he said.

Yet he did not mention the issue of reforming the country’s gun laws, something Hillary Clinton seized on with an attack on the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the US’s most influential gun-rights lobbying group

Before he set off for Puerto Rico, where he is to meet residents and emergency responders who have been dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Maria, Mr Trump was asked whether the slaughter in Las Vegas would lead him to take up gun control legislation.

“Look, we have a tragedy. What happened is, in many ways, a miracle. The police department, they’ve done such an incredible job,” he said, according to a pool report.

“And we’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes on. But I do have to say, how quickly the police department was able to get in was really very much of a miracle. They’ve done an amazing job.”

In the aftermath of the shooting, carried out by 64-yeasr-old Stephen Paddock, Ms Clinton posted several tweets urging people to respond to what happened by challenging the power of the NRA and demanding changes to the country’s gun laws.

“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots,” she wrote. “Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.”

She added: “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.”

The NRA endorsed Mr Trump in last year’s election, an announcement that at the time came at the earliest stage in the political cycle.

It also spent more than $21m to help him - $9.6m on adverts and other pro-Trump materials, and another $12m attacking Ms Clinton, whom he went on to defeat.

On Monday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to Ms Clinton’s comments by saying it was to early to begin a debate on gun control.

“There’s a time and place for a political debate but now is the time to unite as a country,” she told reporters at the daily briefing in Washington.

“There's currently an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation;, a motive has yet to be determined and it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don’t know all the facts or what took place last night.”

Asked about what was known about Paddock, Mr Trump said: “He’s a sick man, a demented man. A lot of problems, I guess. We are looking into him very, very seriously. But we’re dealing with a very, very sick individual.”

He was also asked about the criticism he had made of the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, who had asked for more federal help and said “people are dying”.

The President later posted a series of tweets condemning her comments and saying she had been influenced by the “fake news media”.

“Well, I think she’s come back a long way. I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done, and people are looking at that. And in Texas and in Florida, we get an A+,” he said

“And I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico, and it’s actually a much tougher situation. But now the roads are cleared, communications is starting to come back. We need their truck drivers to start driving trucks.”