The Las Vegas shooting is the deadliest in recent U.S. history. As witnesses relayed information about the violence, the news was matched by renewed calls for gun control.

CGTN’s Owen Fairclough has more on this divisive debate in the U.S.

Fans of country star Jason Aldean were filming and live streaming his concert on Las Vegas’s famous strip, when suddenly their cameras were turned on the chaos around them – as bullets rained down from the Mandalay Bay hotel a short distance away.

Scores of videos like these were posted across social media, followed by an outpouring of global sympathy, including this tweet from Steve Scalise – the Republican lawmaker and gun rights advocate who survived a shooting earlier this summer.  On Twitter, he said he and his wife were “praying for the victims of this unspeakable violence in Las Vegas.”

Gun control was surpassed only by Las Vegas as the top global topic trending on Twitter, reopening a bitter debate that always follows these kinds of massacres in the United States.

Hillary Clinton, who lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, urged her followers to stand up to the National Rifle Association – the most prominent firearms lobbying organization in the country.

She tweeted, “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.”

But others were quick to challenge her – these users arguing that tighter gun ownership laws would not have prevented Las Vegas.

“No amount of #guncontrolwould have stopped the Las Vegas shooting,” tweeted @real_defender. “Criminals will always find a way to get a gun, that will not change.”

Another tweeted, “Las Vegas shooter used fully automatic weapon – those are already illegal. #guncontrol wouldn’t have changed anything.”

U.S. President Donald Trump once backed gun control but in recent years has staunchly defended the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms. As he prepares to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday, there’s no indication he’s ready to change his position on firearms.