US President Barack Obama has accused the nation’s largest gun lobby of peddling an “imaginary fiction” that has distorted the debate about firearms violence.

Barack Obama urged politicians to remember child shooting victims and not weaken in the face of a powerful gun lobby as he reached out to moderate members of his own party before a Senate vote on gun controls expected next month.

President Barack Obama has urged US lawmakers to remember the children gunned down in America and not get “squishy” in the face of powerful forces up against gun control legislation, as supporters struggle to win over moderate Democrats before a Senate vote expected next month.