Trump likely to tiptoe around gun control fight in Las Vegas visit

Fresh off a trip aimed at addressing a tragic weather event, President Trump will set off for Las Vegas on Wednesday to confront another national crisis as he grapples with the most dramatic series of domestic disasters to strike his young presidency.

The shooting at a country music festival along the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday evening – the largest mass shooting in American history – has rocked a nation already reeling from a trio of historically-proportioned hurricanes. Trump spent Tuesday demonstrating his engagement with federal efforts to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria, which made landfall on the island last month as a Category 5 storm.

But the president will face higher stakes and rawer emotions when he arrives in Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with first responders and the families of victims.

And his critics will continue to pressure the White House into taking a stance in the gun control debate despite the lack of public evidence as to how this week's attack unfolded.

"The president's trip isn't and shouldn't be about gun control," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told the Washington Examiner. "It's about the victims, and it's stunning that several Dems and media blowholes started screaming ‘gun control' before the bodies had even been cleared off the streets."