NEW YORK, Dec 16: New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg — an outspoken advocate for stricter gun laws — said on Sunday that dealing with gun violence should be at the top of President Barack Obama’s agenda.

“This should be his number one agenda. He’s president of the United States,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in the aftermath of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

“If he does nothing during his second term, something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns. That is roughly the number of Americans killed in the whole Vietnam War,” Bloomberg told NBC news.

The gun lobby in the United States, led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), is so powerful that even formidable veteran politicians are unwilling to take it on fearing reprisals and losing their seats in the legislatures.

Even President Obama, who took on the big insurance companies in his fight to create a better healthcare law in the country, has been unwilling to take on the powerful gun lobby.

Bloomberg said that President Obama doesn’t need Congress’ cooperation of everything — he can simply enforce current law.

“There’s something like 77,000 — people who’ve been accused of lying when they applied for a gun permit. We’ve only prosecuted 77 of them,” Bloomberg said.

“The president can introduce legislation — even if it doesn’t get passed. The president campaigned back in 2008 on a bill that would prohibit assault weapons,” the mayor went on. “We’ve got to really question whether military-style weapons with big magazines belong on the streets of America in this day and age.”

However, the massacre of children may be able to force a meaningful debate and President Obama is looking for an opportunity.

In his own statement on Friday, President Obama appeared to answer some of those critics, saying the US must “come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics”.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: The outpouring of global grief for victims of Sandy Hook school has generated a flood of offers of financial contributions, according to a newspaper.

Children support groups from around the world, including Pakistan, have held candlelit vigils and offered every kind of help needed by the Sandy Hook school system.

“We have been hearing from people all over the country asking how they can help and what they can do to support the families,” one person said on a TV channel.

Several groups have set up websites to accept contributions.