WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Barack Obama is likely on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) to call for universal background checks for gun buyers, an assault weapons ban and limits on high capacity magazines, in new plans targeting gun violence.

Obama will unveil a comprehensive strategy to thwart America’s scourge of gun violence surrounded by children who wrote to him concerned about school safety and gun violence after last month’s massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

The plans, drawn up after an exhaustive policy review by Vice President Joe Biden last month, are expected to include a mix of legislation and executive orders using presidential power.

They will be unveiled a day after New York passed what could be the toughest US gun ownership law, becoming the first state to impose new restrictions after the killings in Newtown of 20 school kids and six adults on December 14.

Key White House players have said that the federal package may include efforts to renew a law banning assault weapons that expired in 2004, curbs on high-capacity magazine clips and universal background checks for gun purchases.

Obama may also suggest ways of improving mental health care, following a spree of shootings by disturbed gunmen who fell through the cracks of the existing medical system.

But the fate of those measures that require Congress to act, against the power of the pro-gun lobby, is unclear, after Obama himself questioned whether there would be sufficient support among lawmakers.

The Washington news organization Politico reported that the White House had pulled together 19 executive actions that Obama could take unilaterally, designed to enforce and implement existing laws.

But officials, seeking to avoid a backlash and political ammunition for pro-gun groups, repeatedly stressed that Obama believes in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution that enshrines the right to bear arms.

David Keene, president of the top gun rights group the National Rifle Association (NRA), told CNN on Sunday that an assault weapons ban was unlikely to make it through Congress.

The NRA opposes most of the White House’s likely proposals, and has instead called for armed guards at every US school.

But Obama called on lawmakers to examine their consciences over whether the carnage at Sandy Hook elementary school should prompt a new approach.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found most Americans support banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The poll found high support for some shifts: 88 percent favor background checks on buyers at gun shows; 76 percent urge checks on buyers of ammunition; 71 percent back the creation of a new federal database to track all gun sales; and 65 percent back banning high-capacity ammunition magazines.