That's how many people in the US saw it. Supporters of gun control have attacked politicians for sending "thoughts and prayers" rather than demanding stronger laws to stop the carnage caused by mass shootings in the US. Coming to Australia? Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Australians loved Americans when he spent a year working in Western Australia in 1983. Credit:AP The New York Daily News, which has stridently called for gun control after past massacres, compiled some of the tweets on its front page under the headline "God isn't fixing this". "As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes," the paper thundered.

Among those criticised were Republican presidential candidates, many of whom shared similar messages in the aftermath of the attack. Ben Carson wrote: "My thoughts and prayers are with the shooting victims and their families in San Bernardino." Jeb Bush expressed similar thoughts: "Praying for the victims, their families & the San Bernardino first responders in the wake of this tragic shooting," he tweeted. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump said he would hold a moment of silence for victims of the shootings at a rally he was holding in Manassas, Virginia. Social media users expressed their outrage at the lack of action. Comedian Billy Eichner tweeted: "Your 'thoughts and prayers' don't mean a damn thing. #GunControlNOW".

Democrat congressman Chris Murphy, who represented the area where the Sandy Hook massacre happened, tweeted his anger: "Your 'thoughts' should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your 'prayers' should be for forgiveness if you do nothing - again."

Journalist Igor Volsky tweeted back to politicians sending their thoughts and prayers by exposing their links to the National Rifle Association. President Barack Obama told CBS News that while the motives of the shooters were unclear, "what we do know is, is that there are steps we can take to make Americans safer and that we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government to make these rare as opposed to normal. "We should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries." The woman who hopes to succeed Obama in the oval office, echoed his sentiments.

The Daily News has attacked US politicians in the past for their reaction to gun massacres. In the aftermath of the shocking Sandy Hook elementary school killings in 2012, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adults, the paper printed a front page with "blood on your hands". According to the Vox 'mass shooting tracker', there have been at least 1042 shootings, amounting to 1312 deaths and 3764 wounded since Sandy Hook. The three-year anniversary of Sandy Hook is this month.