Gun owners are disproportionately (though by no means entirely) white, southern and rural-a group Mr Obama has trouble appealing to.

The camera focuses on a gun recoiling, then pans out to search for the impact point. A white line of smoke arcs above the city and ploughs into a group of houses.

At the station, the group is met by a pair of gun-toting police officers, on guard for an escaped con, and by a set of Baskerville servants.