Obama Gun Violence Analysis

(CNN)President Barack Obama will take his push for tighter gun measures directly to the American people Thursday, in a nationally televised town hall meeting that comes two days after his emotional announcement of new executive actions to cut gun violence.

Obama will headline the "Guns in America" event exclusively on CNN live at 8 p.m. ET to press for public support for the executive measures he announced on Tuesday, which include a bid to narrow the so-called "gun-show loophole" on background checks.

"I think the President, frankly, is looking forward to talking to people on both sides of this issue," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday, adding that Obama will try to debunk Republican claims that he is intent on taking guns

away from Americans.

"The President will repeat once again his belief in and commitment to the Second Amendment to the Constitution and that the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans are worth protecting," Earnest said ahead of the event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

However, the National Rifle Association said on Wednesday that it would not send official representatives to the hour-long town hall meeting, set to include pro- and anti-gun-regulation activists and to be moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper.

In an unusual format, Cooper's interview with the President will be followed by questions from people on both sides of the issue in the audience.

READ: Gun control in America: How we got here

"The National Rifle Association sees no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told CNN.

A CNN spokesperson said that it was the network, not the White House, that proposed the idea of a town hall on guns and noted that the audience would be evenly divided between organizations that support the Second Amendment, including NRA members, as well as groups that back gun regulation.

The town hall meeting will include around 100 guests invited by CNN. Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was injured in an assassination attempt in 2011, and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who is now a gun control advocate, will attend. Also in the audience will be Taya Kyle, widow of Chris Kyle, the soldier portrayed in the movie "American Sniper" who was murdered in a gun

crime.

In an op-ed piece on CNN.com Thursday, Kyle argued against greater gun control, saying existing laws should be enforced more effectively and arguing that Americans had a right to defend themselves against people set on committing evil.

"My government has proven that it's not able to protect me against people who want to kill. And I don't blame the government, because there is only one person to blame here: The man or woman who decided to kill," Kyle wrote.

Obama will take part in the town hall as a new CNN/ORC poll shows that a majority of the public support the measures that he outlined this week but that less than half of Americans think they will actually work.

Support for the measures crosses party lines, with 67% of those asked saying they favor the changes. Some 85% of Democrats, 65% of independents and 51% of Republicans support the President's moves.