His comments follow a 19-year-old, who participated in paramilitary drills with a white nationalist group, being charged with murder over the deaths of 17 people who were shot at a Florida high school.

An emotional Kimmel said on his US TV show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, that it was “another very sad day in America. Another senseless shooting”.

After excerpts from the president’s speech in the aftermath of the Florida shooting, in which he promised to act on mental health, Kimmel said: “Tell your buddies in Congress… all the family men who care so much about their communities, that what we need are laws. Real laws that do everything possible to keep assault rifles out of the hands of people who are going to shoot our kids,” Kimmel said.

“Go on TV and tell them to do that. That is a perfect example of that common sense you told us you were going to bring to the White House.”

Kimmel added: “Tell these Congressmen and lobbyists who infest that swamp you said you were going to drain – force these allegedly Christian men and women who stuff their pockets with money from the NRA, year after year after year, to do something. Now. Not later.”

While “children are being murdered” the president has “done worse than nothing”, he said, adding that “one of your very first acts as president was to roll back the regulations that were designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the…