Las Vegas shooting: US firearms rights campaigner says 'no amount of gun control would have stopped this'

A US talk show host and firearms rights campaigner has claimed "no amount of new gun control could have stopped" the Las Vegas shooting.

Mark Walters compared calling for greater restrictions on firearms ownership in the wake of the massacre to "dancing in the blood of victims".

At least 59 people were killed and 527 injured when a lone gunman opened fire on crowds at a music festival in the most deadly mass shooting in modern US history.

Police found 23 firearms in the hotel room from where Stephen Paddock took aim at victims, and discovered more than 19 other guns, explosives, and thousands of rounds of ammunition during a search of his Nevada home.

The massacre, the 237th mass shooting in America this year, prompted renewed calls for tighter gun control in the country.

But Mr Walters, whose Armed American Radio programme is sponsored by the Concealed Carry Association, insisted gun control campaigners were "politicising a tragedy".

"This was not a gang violence episode in Chicago, this was a terror attack in America with guns that were already illegal," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.

"In order to have the type of weapon that [Paddock] had he would have... had to modify it illegally," he added. "He violated every federal law in the books. So no amount of new gun control would have stopped this madman."

He said the US had "tried" gun control but claimed it "doesn't work" and conceded the US would see more mass shootings.

"Unfortunately, sadly, we will see another one," he admitted. "It's more than likely being planned by some psychopathic lunatic right now. And I predict that when that happens we will see the immediate calls from the Democrat left - screaming politics, politicising and dancing in the blood of the victims before the bodies are even taken to a morgue - for more gun control."

He added: "We have tried. We have background checks in America, we have illegal weapons in America. We cherish our right to bear arms. We have great freedoms in America and those freedoms come with great responsibility, but no one... can point to one gun control law [that would stop mass shootings.]"

In 1996, Australia introduced sweeping gun control measures 12 days after 28-year-old Martin Byrant shot dead 35 people in a gun rampage in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

The number of mass shootings dropped from 13 in the 18-year period before the massacre to zero after the introduction of tighter restrictions. Gun-related murders and suicides also dropped dramatically.

But Mr Walters said it was "naive" to suggest gun control might lead to fewer mass shootings and claimed it was "not a public safety issue".

He admitted that "if you outlawed all guns, there would be no gun crime," but added: "We would have to do the same thing with box trucks, we would have to do the same thing with box-cutters that brought down four airplanes.

"We are seeing people mowed down, hundreds of people. Human beings have been slaughtering each other since the dawn of time. If it's not a gun, it's something else."

There were 383 mass shootings in the US last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which more than three people are shot. The online database says there were 358 such attacks in America in 2015.

The figures far surpass every other developed country in the world.