President Barack Obama fielded tough questions from gun owners at a televised town hall on Thursday, defending his move to tighten gun rules as he sought to elevate the issue of gun control before the November 2016 election to replace him.
A series of mass shootings has punctuated Obama's time in office, and after he failed to convince Congress to toughen up gun laws, the president said he wanted to have a national debate about guns in his final year in office.
Obama, who said he had never owned a gun, has blamed Congress for being beholden to the National Rifle Association, a powerful lobby group that fights any action that might infringe on Americans' constitutional right to bear arms.
Guns are a potent issue in U.S. politics. The NRA is feared and respected in Washington for its ability to mobilize gun owners. Congress has not approved major gun-control legislation since the 1990s.
The NRA sat out the town hall, aired live on CNN from a university just miles (km) from the group's Virginia headquarters, calling it a "public relations spectacle."
But several gun owners peppered Obama with arguments against his gun rule proposals.
Taya Kyle, widow of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who was killed at a gun range and portrayed in the film "American Sniper," said laws would not stop people with criminal intent.
"The problem is that they want to murder," Kyle said.
Kimberly Corban, a survivor of a sexual assault who said she carried a gun to protect herself and her two young children, told Obama that she felt his changes infringed on her rights.
"I have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids," Corban said.
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