NRA pushes against President Obama’s gun control executive action with

But she said he also wanted to begin a broader conversation about what he views as the need for more gun regulations. “It’s a great advertising mechanism”, Obama said.

Anderson Cooper: “They haven’t been to the White House in three years?” “They just don’t trust you”.

“There are a whole bunch of law-abiding citizens who have grown up hunting with their dads, going to the shooting range and are responsible gun owners”, Obama said.

The president is signaling to the American public that he is “no longer willing to wait” to pass gun reforms, according to Chelsea Parsons who focuses on guns and crime policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

The president also announced steps to strengthen enforcement of gun laws; seek more money for mental health care; bolster reporting of missing or stolen guns; improve the efficiency of the background check system; and support new technologies that can make guns safer to use. The NRA is feared and respected in Washington for its ability to mobilize gun owners.

The forum, airing live on CNN, pits the president and gun control advocates against Second Amendment supporters.

Aides to the president have always been frustrated that his push for new gun laws – which began in the days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012 – has been characterised by some gun rights activists as part of a conspiracy meant to seize their guns and take away their freedom.

Cooper said some Americans believe that Obama will try to go “further and further” in imposing stricter gun controls.

Before Thursday’s town hall, the New York Times published an op-ed by the president, who vowed to spend his final year in office pushing for “common-sense gun reform” and said the “epidemic of gun violence in our country is a crisis”.

President Obama’s executive actions on gun safety Tuesday has one Arizona group praising his actions, while a firearms dealer is unsure what the future holds for the occasional gun seller.

The Republican frontrunner told the crowd: “You know what a gun-free zone is for a sicko?”

“[In] an Internet gun sale you purchase the firearm and at the point of purchase there is no background check, but then the firearm has to be shipped to a licensed dealer”, Talbert said, “The licensed dealer is then required to do the background check or you have to have a permit to purchase”.

OBAMA: “They’ve (Congress) refused to make it harder for terror suspects who can’t get on a plane to buy semi-automatic weapons”.

These polls show that President Obama is actually speaking for the majority of the American people and this is not the agenda of a Democrat in the White House to confiscate guns.