Evaluation of DHS's Ethics, Cooperation, Leadership, and Legal Research Paper

Evaluation of DHS's Ethics, Cooperation, Leadership, and Legal Decisions - Research Paper Example Investigations by the DHS are still ongoing, while other stakeholders in the incident representing the government have taken preventive measures. For example, Mungin & Brady (2013) write that Connecticut governor, Dannel Malloy signed a law increasing the number of guns banned by the state. In addition, background checks are to be conducted on all gun purchases, and schools allocated 15 million U.S dollars to improve their security. Parents of the murdered children, as well as other residents of Connecticut welcomed the law and called for tougher regulations to curb illegal gun possession (Mungin & Brady, 2013). On 16th April 2013, two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing three people and injuring 100 others. Two brothers were suspected of being behind the bombings and one is in custody, while the other was shot dead in a shootout with police, when the latter were looking for the suspect. According to Homeland Security (2013), Mr. McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, the two brothers appear to have received help in planning the attack. The sophistication of the devices used and the timing of the attack led to this conclusion. Accordingly, investigations into the attack cover areas outside the U.S, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan. On its part, the federal government pledged to get to the bottom of the matter, but president Obama avoided terming the attacks as â€Å"terrorism†. To the public, a day of celebrations turned tragic, especially considering that the marathoners had paid tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting at the beginning of the race. According to the Center for Public Integrity’s article by Fred Schulte on â€Å"ATF’s struggle to close down firearm dealers† (2013), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) does a shoddy job inspecting dealers. Apparently, ATF inspectors may delay to inspect a dealer for as long as eight years and when they do, the inspection is not thorough enough. In cases where inspectors find dealers to have violated gun laws and revoke the dealer’s licenses, the latter usually appeals revocation. This process drags in the courts for years and meanwhile, dealers pass their business over to relatives or turn them into â€Å"personal† collection, which does not require background checks. Probably, this is the reason why people like Adam Lanza owned guns capable of killing more than 26 people in 5 minutes. There is no telling how many more people own guns illegally, and how safe the U.S citizens are. A second article by Berlow on â€Å"current gun debate may not help beleaguered ATF† addresses how the congress has played a role in ATF’s failure to control weapon use, particularly in conducting investigations. It also addresses the fact that the agency lacks funds to run operations smoothly. In addition, the current laws are too weak to recognize the role of TF in cases involving gun trafficking. Leadership influences The leadership of DHS is hierarchical in structure, headed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is appointed by the President, with the consent of the senate. The Deputy Secretary comes second, followed by Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries who head different departments. This style of leadership allows for the formation of mechanism to assess risks, and allocate funds for countering terrorism.