Gun violence, climate change, and $16 trillion in U.S. debt are major issues of life and death that give President Obama the opportunity to become a truly transformational president. Pity his legacy if Obama fails, or fails to try.

Today's headlines reflect the high risk and reward of striving: Vice President Joe Biden is meeting with the gun-rights lobby in the quest for a post-Newtown solution to American-on-American massacres; 2012 was the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States; and dysfunctional Washington is no closer to a responsible budget deal that requires sacrifice from all voters, including the middle class.

These are the kind of problems that, when fixed, get presidential faces carved in granite. If he's willing to adjust his leadership habits (more on that later), Obama has a shot at immortality.

First, the political landscape is ripe for bold ideas and big change:The public is overwhelmingly discontented with the direction the country is headed, and is craving outside-the-box leadership. In times of tumult, voters are likely to forgive a president, if not reward him, for compromises made in service of solutions. And if Americans can ever again be summoned to a spirit of shared sacrifice, this would be that moment.

Second, polls show a majority of voters want Washington to address guns, debt, and the climate. True, there's no easy agreement on exactly how to solve the problems, but events of the past few weeks have at least galvanized the country behind the need for answers.

Finally, Obama has the post-partisan, pragmatic instincts (not to mention a sense of history) to pull it off. The fact that he didn't live up to his potential in a first term doesn't mean he won't in a second.

"He has a rare opportunity to make a real mark," said John Baick, professor of history at Western New England University in Springfield, Mass.

Gun control has been off-limits since the 1994 and 2000 elections, both Democratic defeats that were partly blamed on President Clinton's efforts to impose modest regulations on guns. Since then, Obama's party has grown less wary of gun control, as moderate Democrats from pro-gun states lost congressional sway. The wave of mass shootings, particularly the December slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., gives Obama the opportunity to test the public's appetite for gun legislation.

A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted after the Newtown shootings suggests that Americans overwhelmingly favor banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips and requiring background checks at guns shows. Most want laws governing the sale of guns to be more strict.

Banning semiautomatic guns known as assault rifles is favored by a minority of voters, just 44 percent, making it a test of Obama's ambition: The way to leave his mark on the guns issue is to support an assault-weapons ban and use the bully pulpit to shift polls in favor of it.

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Guns, Debt, and Climate Change Give Obama Shot at Immortality