Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said guns aren’t the problem and now isn’t the time for gun control in his first national interview on Thursday, a day after 18 people were killed in a mass shooting in Maine.
“At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. It’s not guns. It’s not the weapons.” Johnson said in a Fox News interview with host Sean Hannity on Thursday.
Johnson said now is “not the time” for gun control, citing his belief in the Second Amendment.
“At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and that’s the Second Amendment. And that’s why our party stands so strongly for that,” he said. “I agree with the comments of your guests there: This is not the time to be talking about legislation. We’re in the middle of that crisis right now.”
The Lewiston, Maine, gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant Wednesday. The suspected shooter, Army reservist Robert Card, is still at large, sparking a massive manhunt.
Card used an assault-style weapon in the shooting, officials said, sparking renewed calls for additional gun control measures and an assault weapons ban.
Republicans have long opposed an assault weapons ban, and Johnson said the House should focus on mental health legislation, not gun control, in his interview with Hannity. Card reportedly suffered from mental health issues before the shooting.
“I believe we have to address the root problems of these things. And mental health, obviously, as in this case, is a big issue,” Johnson said. “And we have got to seriously address that as a society and as a government. And there’s lots of measures pending on that as well.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) responded to a clip of Johnson’s interview with a brief post on X late Thursday.
“It’s actually the f—ing weapons,” he wrote.
The shooting has brought Maine gun control laws under criticism, with advocates saying the mass shooting proves that those measures aren’t enough.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a native of Lewiston, reversed course Thursday by voicing support of an assault weapons ban.
“Out of fear of this dangerous world that we live in, in my determination to protect my own daughter and wife in our own community, because of a false confidence that our community was above this and that we could be in full control, among many other misjudgments, I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” Golden said at a press conference Thursday.
“The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine,” he continued. “For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.”
“To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to those who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed: I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings,” he said.
–Updated at 10:27 a.m.