At President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union Address on Jan. 12, 2016, an estimated 31.3 million people tuned in from all across the country. Those viewers, along with the attendees in the Capitol during the time of the speech, gave Obama an impressive audience for his eighth State of the Union Address. Even with a packed room full of congress men and women, it was hard to ignore the empty chair, though.

The empty chair next to First Lady Michelle Obama was symbolically reserved, by President Obama, to honor victims of gun violence in the United States. Families of victims responded favorably, and the hashtag #emptyseat emerged on social media. People were pleased with Obama’s move to commemorate their loved ones who had died during the shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook, or even at a local gas station.

The act, although a respectable one, raised a lot of questions and stirred up controversies as well. For one, Obama never actually addressed the chair in his actual speech, and the only comment he had on gun violence came at the beginning of the address as he said, “And I will keep pushing for progress on the work that I believe still needs to be done: ...protecting our kids from gun violence, equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage." While President Obama was open about not introducing new policies, it seems that people still expected him to address the issues surrounding gun violence more than he did.

So, was the empty chair a publicity stunt that offered comfort to a few families or was it genuinely supposed to raise awareness and commemorate the victims of shootings?

Derrick Clifton of the Chicago Reader offered the point that “if viewers missed earlier reports contextualizing the empty chair, they would've been led to believe that one of the first lady's esteemed guests had backed out of their invitation at the last minute. Most audiences likely didn't have a clue what the chair was for." Republican Tim Murphy referred to the act as “nothing more than a political gimmick” and urged awareness beyond “tragedy” to “treatment before tragedy,” pushing for more help to individuals with mental health disorders.

Others called out Obama’s “hypocrisy” after presuming that the chair would ignore victims of shootings done by Mexican drug cartels who were provided guns by the Obama administration as well as fallen veterans who were not granted an empty chair by their Commander-in-Chief.

All things considered, it feels safe to say that President Obama reserved the chair with intentions to respect and honor victims of gun violence. A “political gimmick” does seem slightly far-fetched; however, is it time for us to stop “talking about” gun violence and start doing things about it instead? Absolutely. Hopefully, Obama’s empty chair will be a reminder to Congress men and women that they all have an important role to play when it comes to gun control.