One might imagine the last thing that Barack Obama’s advisers would want as he pushes for tighter gun laws is for the President to be seen with a shotgun wedged against his shoulder.

But that’s exactly what the White House released at the weekend – an image of the President skeet (or clay pigeon) shooting, after his claim in a recent interview that he indulged in the sport “all the time” triggered scepticism among gun-rights advocates.

Well aware that most Americans still oppose a blanket ban on guns, his advisers rushed out the image at the weekend to reaffirm his support for, as he put it last month, “our strong tradition of gun ownership and the rights of hunters and sportsmen.”