Gun control is part of homeland security: Johnson

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has called on passing meaningful gun control reforms to bolster homeland security, following Sunday’s shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, which left nearly 50 people dead and 43 others injured.

“I believe that meaningful, responsible gun control is part of homeland security and it’s something we have to address,” Johnson said in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday. “We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get a gun in this country.”

The secretary of Homeland Security said US President Barack Obama is "frustrated" with the lack of action on preventing gun violence, but he's still "determined".

Efforts to make gun laws stricter have failed in US Congress over the last decade.

"I thought frankly after Sandy Hook where you have schoolchildren murdered in a classroom that maybe finally this will be the tipping point and we were not able to move the needle in Congress, unfortunately," Johnson added.

On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six adults were fatally shot by Adam Lanza, the gunman who later killed himself at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in the town of Newtown in the US state of Connecticut.

Following the shooting, Obama pushed for gun reforms, including expanded background checks and a ban on high-capacity magazines, but the powerful National Rifle Association of America and its people in Congress fiercely opposed the measures.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Johnson pointed out that in order to prevent homegrown terrorist attacks in the future, the government and the public should deepen their ties with Muslim communities.

"We're going to continue to build bridges to American-Muslim communities, not vilify them and drive them into the corners and shadows," he said.

Johnson denounced plans by Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump to ban Muslims from immigrating to the US, saying the proposal is "overly simplistic".

"I won't comment on what the candidates say running for president. I will say that overly simplistic suggestions that we ban people from entering this country based on religion or ban people from an entire region of the world is counter-productive. It will not work," he said.

"And we need to build bridges to communities, to American Muslim communities, right now to encourage them to help us in our homeland security efforts."

Trump created a furor in the US and around the world by proposing a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States, following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

The billionaire businessman has also proposed to stop illegal immigration by building a wall on the US-Mexico border.

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