Republican candidates blast Obama for terror speech

US President Barack Obama’s latest speech on guns and terrorism has drawn strong criticism from the 2016 Republican presidential candidates for lack of aggressiveness and vision.

In a primetime speech from the Oval Office on Sunday night, Obama said that the threat posed by terrorists to the United States has evolved into a dangerous "new phase."

“I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure,” he stated. “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it.”

The comments came in the aftermath of the recent deadly mass shooting in California, in which 14 people were killed. The Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group has claimed that the assailants were its followers.

"President Obama has finally been forced to abandon the political fantasy he has perpetuated for years that the threat of terrorism was receding,” Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, said in a statement, according to Reuters.

“We need to remove the self-imposed constraints President Obama has placed on our intelligence community and military, and we need to put in place an aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS,” Bush added.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump also expressed his disappointment. He took to his Twitter account and wrote, “Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST!”

Trump also chided Obama for refusing to announce a war against what he called “radical Islamic terrorists.”

The real-estate magnate even criticized Obama’s use of the acronym ISIL while referring to the terror group in Iraq and Syria.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio also took a jab at the president, criticizing him for saying “ISIL does not speak for Islam,” and that Americans should avoid discriminating against Muslims.

"Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?” Rubio told Fox News after the speech. "I think not only did the president not make things better tonight, I fear he may have made things worse in the minds of many Americans."

Republicans also slammed Obama’s call for stricter gun control laws following the shooting rampage.

“Let me be clear, disarming more law-abiding citizens will not stop mass murderers and terrorists,” said Senator Rand Paul, another GOP candidate. “We should be advocating for more concealed-carry ability for law-abiding Americans and an end to unconstitutional gun-free zones.”

This is while the US averages 87 gun deaths per day as a result of widespread gun violence, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the United States at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.

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