The brickbats hurled by gun control critics were expected, but the tears shed by U.S. President Barack Obama in announcing on Tuesday his new executive actions intended to stem gun violence in the U.S. were not.
Despite the tearjerker surprise, however, Obama failed to gain sympathy and support from politicians and media organisations. The Associated Press delivered the most hard-hitting assessment, saying the gun control measures laid out by Obama would not have prevented the slaughter of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; 14 county workers at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California; and the 12 moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado.
Obama's gun control measures include expanding mandatory background checks to gun shows, flea markets and online sales, adding more than 230 examiners and staff to help process them and calling on states to submit accurate and updated criminal history data.
However, the Associated Press says those measures would only be good in curbing gun suicides since they would block immediate access to weapons. It says the measures would have no impact in keeping weapons from the hands of terrorists and other criminals determined to cause mayhem as shown in recent mass shooting incidents.
For instance, the news outlet said the shooters at Sandy Hook and San Bernardino used weapons purchased by other people, shielding them from background checks.
In the Dec. 2, 2015 massacre in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed, the shooter Syed Farook and his wife used weapons that the FBI says his neighbor, Enrique Marquez, purchased legally from a federally licensed dealer in 2011 and 2012.
In the Oct. 1, 2015, Roseburg, Oregon mass shooting that killed 10 people, shooter Christopher Harper-Mercer and his family members legally purchased the handguns and rifle he used in the Umpqua Community College shooting from a federally licensed gun dealer, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Two major gun rights groups in the U.S. slammed Obama for what conservatives see as a gun grab rather than gun control, according to Newsmax.
The Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association joined Republican leaders in condemning the president's action.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Obama "is obsessed with undermining the Second Amendment. He is obsessed with burdening law-abiding citizens who are going to follow the law no matter what it is."
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said "those orders aren't worth the paper they are written on because come January 7th, 2017 they are going away."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said "liberals like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton seize on every opportunity to advance a gun-grabbing agenda. After the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Obama and Clinton called for sweeping gun control provisions that would trample on the Second Amendment."
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said, "You are supposed to get together and pass a law. But he [Obama] doesn't want to do that. He wants to go back and play golf."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, "It's not constitutional. I'm confident the courts will reject his attempts to do that."
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said, "You say if we can save one life we should. Well, apply 5th & 14th amendments to the unborn & save 4,000 lives a day."
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Obama's "words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty."
