Barack Obama won’t campaign for opponents of new gun laws

US President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed not to campaign or vote for any candidate, including Demo-crats, who opposes tighter gun laws, as he publicly ch-allenged critics of his policies.

In a concerted effort to garner support for contentious unilateral measures regulating the sale and purchase of guns, a sometimes combative Mr Obama took to television to make his case.

In an opinion article in the New York Times and in a primetime CNN debate that featured questions from gun owners, Mr Obama argued for executive measures regulating the sale and purchase of weapons, controversially bypassing Congress.

“Even as I continue to take every action possible as president, I will also take every action I can as a citizen,” he said in a message posted on the Times’ website. “I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support commonsense gun reform,” Mr Obama said.

That relatively short list could include Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who voted against gun reform in 2013.

Mr Obama tore into the nation’s largest gun lobby, accusing the powerful lobby group of peddling an “imaginary fiction” that he said has distorted the national debate about gun violence. He dismissed what he called a “conspiracy” alleging that the federal government and Mr Obama in particular wants to seize all firearms as a precursor to imposing martial law. He blamed that notion on the National Rifle Association and like-minded groups that convince its members that “somebody’s going to come grab your guns.”