President Barack Obama to outline gun control plans

President Obama will lay out his plans for tackling gun violence later this week, he has announced.

Speaking on a day that marked a month on from the massacre at a primary school in Connecticut, he said that he would be able to take some steps by executive order. For those proposals which require a debate in Congress, he urged members to "examine their conscience".

The National Rifle Association and some lawmakers have suggested that any plan to ban assault weapons would not pass Congress.