In signing an executive order, Barack Obama may have done too little towards gun control as all that he achieved in forcing a token change was to increase background checks on those who buy guns online and at gun shows across the US. But the rich symbolism shines in a country that has seen 330 mass shootings in 2015, where individual gun use in deadly circumstances isn’t even counted in these macabre statistics. As tears rolled down Mr Obama’s cheeks as he remembered innocent young victims massacred in a 2012 shooting, the enormity of the problem facing America became apparent.
In his last year as President, Mr Obama faces a Senate and House where Republicans are in a majority, and so there is very little he can do. History will see him as one of the least interventionist US Presidents when it comes to using the veto or resorting to executive action. Of course he faces a fierce gun lobby and others determined to ensure that their Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms... shall not be infringed”. It’s a difficult position for a man considered the world’s most powerful individual. In his communion with his own emotional side, a weepy Mr Obama revealed much in a touching way. Every time a mass shooting takes place, the cry goes up for gun control but the momentum gathered is hardly relevant as not even the leader of the free world can do anything about it. Such is the truth that he faces!
