Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the massacre of more than 50 concert goers in Las Vegasshows Australia must remain “ever vigilant” to maintain its strict gun control laws.

Speaking in Sydney this morning, Mr Turnbull again offered his condolences to the victims of the Las Vegas gunman, and said Australia owed a great debt to the actions of former Prime Minister John Howard, who acted to strengthen Australian gun laws in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy.

“Thanks to the strong leadership of John Howard more than 20years ago Australia has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, and we remain ever-vigilant to maintain them,” he said.

Camera Icon A wounded person is walked in on a wheelbarrow as Las Vegas police respond during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip. Credit: AP

Mr Turnbull said the special Council of Australian Government’s summit this week would reflect on the Las Vegas tragedy, and help inform discussions on how to “further strengthen and harmonise” government response to the threat of terrorism, and mass acts of killing.

“There is no set-and-forget there, we’ve just had a gun amnesty over three months, and in the first two months over 25,000 guns were handed in. So we will continue to do everything we can to keep guns, the kind that were used by this killer in Las Vegas, off the streets,” he said.

Play Video The mass shooting is now the worst in U.S. history. The West Australian Video The mass shooting is now the worst in U.S. history.

But the Prime Minister would not comment on the ongoing gun control debate in the US, saying the immediate aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre was not an appropriate time to weigh in on the internal affairs of the US.

“It’s not for me, particularly at this time, to buy into what we all know is long-running political debate in the United States. But I would just say this - we are very, very proud of our strict gun control regime in Australia. We maintain it, and we are not complacent about it at all,” he said.