WASHINGTON — The executive actions President Barack Obama unveiled on Tuesday to combat gun violence echo steps he took almost three years ago to the day.

As he announced the moves, his emotions seemed to get the better of him at times. Tears streamed down his face as he recalled the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six adults.

“Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,” he said.

His frustration also flared as he introduced former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head by a gunman in 2011.

“People are dying,” he said during his formal announcement in the White House East Room. “And the constant excuses for inaction no longer do.”

That Obama has made the issue a priority twice in three years speaks to its urgency, said Ted Alcorn, research director for the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

But the results of the actions from three years ago are mixed, with Congress blocking some of them and others still in progress.

Since 2013, Congress has consistently blocked paying to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the causes of gun violence. And a newly proposed action to encourage states to provide records to the federal background-check system is a continuation of an identical 2013 proposal.

The mixed results highlight the difficulty Obama faces as he tries to circumvent a Republican-controlled Congress to enact his political agenda: Presidents, by design, can do only so much on their own.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, echoed a common Republican criticism of the proposal — that Obama targets those who own guns legally rather than addressing the more complicated problems of treating the mentally ill and fighting terrorism.

“I feel like his focus is all wrong,” Stivers said.

In 2012, when Obama was re-elected to a second term, “no one was talking about gun-violence prevention in a serious way,” Alcorn said. The shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and the emergence of gun-control groups after that massacre killed 20 children and six adults, changed that. Since then, he said, there has been a “constant drumbeat.” Eighty-eight Americans are killed with guns each day, he said.

Among the steps Obama suggested requires any person who is “in the business of selling firearms” to get a license and conduct background checks.

The guidance does not give a specific threshold of how many firearms purchased or sold would trigger licensing requirements, but it notes that “even a few transactions, when combined with other evidence, can be sufficient to establish that a person is ‘engaged in the business.’” Those found guilty of dealing firearms without a license can be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. There also are penalties for failing to conduct background checks before completing a sale.

Such sales, Alcorn said, create no record or paper trail. As a result, it’s unclear how many gun owners get their guns from private sales or transfers. Some surveys suggest the number could be as high as 30 to 40 percent of all gun owners. None of those sales, he said, occur with a background check.

The Internet has also presented a challenge. He said one site hosted 600,000 gun ads last year — none requiring background checks.

Obama’s actions also included working to encourage states to continue providing records to the federal background check system and working to improve reporting; hiring more examiners to assist with processing background checks; hiring 200 more ATF agents and investigators to enforce the nation’s gun laws and better enforcing a requirement that gun dealers notify law enforcement when guns are lost or stolen.

That the issue will become a political one in 2016 was immediately evident. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, called Obama a “petulant child” who “acts like a king.” Billionaire Donald Trump said he would “veto” the actions.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a GOP presidential candidate said the best way to fix the problem “is sit down with Congress and work it out.

“We have enough problems between the legislative and executive branch,” he said. “I’ve come to learn sometimes legislators like you to use an executive order but you don't just shove things down their throat. There are a lot of things we have to fix in this country, and I think this is absolutely the wrong way to go about doing it.”

He did say the mental-health provision was “something Congress ought to pay attention to.”

On the Democratic end, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders voiced support for Obama.

Other Democrats praised Obama’s actions, with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, calling them “ common-sense steps to make our communities safer” and Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, saying it would “help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals” without compromising the rights of responsible gun owners.

But Jim Irvine of the Buckeye Firearms Association, a gun-rights group in Ohio, said Obama’s actions will do little to prevent future mass shootings.

“What have we solved?” he asked. “The answer is nothing. It’s not like these guys (gun-show dealers) are arming active killers. They’re not arming terrorists. This is not the process by which our bad people are getting guns.”

He compares it to being unable to walk and trying to solve that problem by tying your shoe. Tying your shoe, he said, “is not going to solve all of our world’s problems.”

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, said that Obama’s decision to seek change through executive order — something Obama has increasingly done in his final years in office — was an abuse of executive power. Obama has implemented similar rules aimed at addressing immigration, with similar outcry from the GOP.

“When President Obama cannot win on the merits of a policy, he has shown time and time again he will simply act alone,” Tiberi said, adding that he has “fought the administration on previous attempts to abuse executive power against the Second Amendment, and I will continue to do so.”

The actions may also resonate in the state’s U.S. Senate race, where Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, is fighting for a second term. Portman said Obama was once again trying to enact new regulations “ in an area where they have not tried to find common ground.

"I believe there are ways we can work together to curb gun violence,” he said.

Obama’s actions were lauded, however, by Democratic challengers P.G. Sittenfeld and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

“Background checks, stopping terrorists from buying guns and increased mental health reporting are all consistent with our Second Amendment rights, and after so many horrific tragedies there is no excuse for Congress’s failure to address these issues,” Strickland said.

“Since Congress won’t act, the president must,” said Sittenfeld. “None of the steps he’s proposing is outside of his authority.”