Several 2016 Republican candidates have seized the opportunity to attack President Barack Obama over his plan to use his executive authority to expand gun control measures.

For years, Obama has urged the Republican-controlled Congress to take action against gun violence in America by strengthening gun laws that would make it harder for people with criminal backgrounds and mental illness to purchase a firearm. However, GOP lawmakers have refused to pass legislation on gun regulation. As a result, the president announced last week that he plans to impose executive orders that would restrict gun access in effort to prevent another mass shooting. He also planned to meet with Attorney Gen. Loretta Lynch on Monday to review possible executive actions he can take on that will withstand legal challenges, reports CBS News.

"We know that we can't stop every act of violence," Obama said in his weekly address. "But what if we tried to stop even one?"

According to administration officials, one measure in Obama's executive order would require background checks for those who buy firearms at gun shows, a proposal that Republican congressmen, backed by the National Riffle Association, have long blocked.

Just days after he announced his plans to consider executive actions on gun control, the president drew sharp criticism from Republican presidential candidates who say he lacks the authority to enact the restrictions by executive order.

"I don't like anything to do with changing our 2nd Amendment," said Republican front-runner Donald Trump on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. Obama "just goes and signs executive orders on everything."

The billionaire businessman also vowed to "terminate" any gun measures implemented by the Obama administration should he become president during an appearance on Fox News Sunday morning.

"He's been getting away with murder," said the real estate mogul.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also blasted the possible firearm sale restrictions, arguing that the move would "take rights away from law-abiding citizens."

"To use executive powers he doesn't have is a pattern that is quite dangerous," Bush told Fox News. "His top-down driven approach doesn't create freedom, doesn't create safety, doesn't create security. And that's what we ought to be focused on."

Likewise, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio spoke out against the president "governing through decree" while at a campaign event on Sunday.

"Executive actions are designed to implement law, designed to help the implementation of law -- not to undermine the law. And he's used executive action as a way to undermine the law or write a new law," Rubio told reporters at a town hall in New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicted that the "illegal executive action" would later be "rejected by the courts."

"When I become president, [the order] will be stricken from executive action -- by executive action I will take," he pledged on Fox News.

On the other hand, both 2016 Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders praised the president's plans.