Less than 24 hours after a series of attacks in Paris killed more than 120 people, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has turned the conversation to France's gun laws and refugee policy.

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At a campaign event on Saturday, the GOP front-runner suggested that the death toll from Friday's attacks could have been significantly lower if the country allowed residents to carry firearms.

"You can say what you want, but if they had guns—if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry—it would have been a much, much different situation," Trump said. "You look at certain cities that have the highest violence, the highest problem with guns and shootings and killings—Chicago is an example, toughest gun laws in the United States, nothing but problems."

In January, Trump made similar comments in response to a shooting at the Paris offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. "Isn't it interesting that the tragedy in Paris took place in one of the toughest gun control countries in the world?" Trump wrote in a Tweet that re-circulated on Friday, drawing renewed criticism.

Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, called Trump's remark "repugnant in its lack of any human decency," and musician Frank Ocean criticized Trump for politicizing the Paris attack in a Tumblr post that's going viral.

"On the real though Donald Trump. How is it 'interesting' that these shootings happened in a country that's tough on guns," Ocean wrote. "Because it sounds like that vacuous observation was about giving your NRA-loving constituency a handjob and spinning a tragedy for political gain and I'm thinking maybe using a situation where dozens of innocents have just been murdered in the streets isn't the best time."

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Other conservative political pundits in the U.S. have also come under fire for politicizing tragedy, attempting to turn the conversation from the victims to gun or refugee policy.

At the campaign event, Trump added:

"What is going on is terrible. And when you look at what happened in that case: It was just reported, one from Syria and our president wants to take in 250,000 from Syria."

Trump was referring to one of the gunmen who was killed by French authorities on Friday; a Syrian passport was found near his body, and Reuters reported that the shooter may have passed through Greece.

Following the attacks in Paris, French president François Hollande declared a state of emergency and closed the country's borders, effectively keeping out Syrian refugees who are fleeing violence and religious persecution.