Teary Obama thrusts gun control debate into forefront of 2016 race

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s new gun control initiative has pushed the polarizing issue to the forefront of the 2016 presidential campaign, less than a month before the primary contests begin.

Speaking in the East Room at the White House Tuesday, Obama defended his executive actions to tighten criminal background checks. The president was moved to tears in an unusually emotional display during his announcement, saying “it gets me mad” every time he thinks about the 20 first-graders who were killed in the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school in December 2012.

While Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided on the issue, both parties see Obama’s actions as an opportunity to generate enthusiasm among primary voters.

But in a general election, the gun debate becomes a blurrier political proposition. Public opinion polls show Americans overwhelmingly support expanding background checks for gun purchases, but are more divided on the broader question of stricter gun laws. The gun-control advocacy movement has gained wealthy backers, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but the National Rifle Association, a gun advocacy group, remains one of the most dominant forces in American politics.

“It’s an issue that both (sides) are really going to want to talk about for the next couple of months, but I don’t know how much they’re going to want to talk about it in the fall,” Matthew Dowd, a former political adviser to President George W. Bush, said of the eventual presidential nominees.

For now, Obama’s gun actions are a central topic as candidates crisscross Iowa, New Hampshire and other early voting states.

Republican contenders promise that if they get elected, they’ll swiftly repeal Obama’s actions, which include steps to expand background checks for gun purchases. Front-runner Donald Trump vowed to “un-sign” the president’s measures. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that on his first day in the Oval Office, “those orders are gone.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said that while Obama may currently hold the power of the pen, “my pen has got an eraser.”

On the Democratic side, front-runner Hillary Clinton has unveiled her own proposals for gun-control executive actions and enthusiastically endorsed Obama’s measures even before the president’s official announcement.

“I know that a Republican president would delight in the very first day, reversing executive orders that President Obama has made,” Clinton told voters in New Hampshire.

The cornerstone of Obama’s executive actions is a background check requirement for guns purchased from dealers even if they’re bought online or at gun shows. The new federal guidance aims to narrow the so-called gun show loophole that allows some purchases to occur without a background check.

In announcing the actions in the early days of 2016, Obama is purposely thrusting the issue into the center of the presidential campaign. As he foreshadowed his executive orders last fall, Obama said addressing gun violence is “something we should politicize.”

The emphasis on gun issues marks a shift for Democrats, who have shied away from the subject in recent presidential elections, not only because of the NRA, but also due to competing views within the party. Clinton and Obama both treaded carefully on guns when they faced off in the 2008 Democratic primary, and the president didn’t attempt to pass congressional legislation until the shooting of elementary school students in Newtown, Connecticut, which occurred about a month after his 2012 re-election.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.