DHS chief: Gun control ‘part and parcel’ of homeland security

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson called on Congress to pass meaningful gun control laws in two separate television interviews Tuesday morning, calling the issue “part and parcel” of national security.

{mosads}During an appearance on CBS’s “This Morning,” Johnson admitted he is reluctant to get involved in such a contentious issue, noting he has not addressed it publicly during his time in the administration.

“I think that we have to face the facts that gun control is part and parcel of homeland security, given how things are evolving,” he said.

His comments came days after the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at a gay nightclub. Forty-nine people were killed by the gunman, and more than 50 others were wounded early Sunday morning at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The shooter, a Florida man named Omar Mateen, reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) during the massacre and had previously been on an FBI terrorism watch list.

Johnson implied on Tuesday that lawmakers should push legislation that would prevent those on watch lists from purchasing firearms.

“Given the tragic events in Orlando … the American public and the Congress have to face the fact that we need to address meaningful, responsible gun control to make it more difficult for a terrorist to get his hands on a gun,” Johnson said on CNN’s “New Day.”

Gun control would be a new focus for the DHS, which is comprised of agencies dedicated to issues such as immigration and transportation.

Johnson told CBS that he was surprised legislators hadn’t realized the need to take up the issue following a massacre in 2012 at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty children and six adults were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.

“I thought, frankly, after Sandy Hook, where you have school children murdered in a classroom, that maybe finally this was going to be the tipping point,” he said. “And we were not able to move the needle in Congress, unfortunately.”