Malcolm Turnbull has steered clear of Labor leader Bill Shorten's calls for an extension of the federal government's gun amnesty in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre.
Mr Shorten has welcomed the 28,000 firearms handed in during the three-month amnesty but warned there are an estimated 600,000 still on the streets.
"Today I'm calling for a further extension of the gun amnesty," he told the Nine Network on Thursday morning.
In addition to the amnesty extension, Mr Shorten also wants to see gun smugglers, who run criminal syndicates bringing illegal firearms into Australia, face life imprisonment.
The prime minister did not answer questions about extending the amnesty later on Thursday, pivoting instead to Labor's opposition of mandatory sentences for gun runners.
Labor and the Greens have both vowed to vote against compulsory minimum sanctions in the Senate.
"We are increasing maximum sentences, but it's important that there be strong mandatory minimum sentences, five years is what we've proposed," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.
"If Mr Shorten has a concern to prevent gun proliferation and gun smuggling, and I don't doubt that he does, then he should really rethink the unity ticket he's currently on with the Greens party."
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said it was long-standing Labor policy to oppose mandatory sentences.
"Mandatory sentencing takes away the power of judges to make the sentence, to make the penalty fit the crime," he told Sky News.
"What parliaments do is set maximum sentences. They don't dictate to the courts what they should be sentencing particular offenders with."
