Vice President Biden's statement to reporters on Wednesday that the Obama Administration might take action to restrict guns created a firestorm of criticism about the constitutional legitimacy of such moves, as the debate over gun controls continued to simmer on the front burner in Washington, D.C.
"There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken," Biden told reporters as he started a series of meetings on ways to stem gun violence in the wake of the school shootings in Connecticut.
"We haven’t decided what that is yet, but we’re compiling it all," the Vice President added.
The move left conservative talk radio nearly apoplectic, with various hosts accusing the White House of usurping the Constitution, as the Drudge Report late on Wednesday night was quoting the Second Amendment in huge type.
But, everyone seemed to be forgetting somewhat recent history, that at least two Presidents have used executive orders to limit some weapons - and I've covered both.
The first time it happened was in 1989, after a mass school shooting Stockton, California, as President George H.W. Bush used a 1968 gun control law to limit the importation of foreign firearms - his executive order banned the shipment of certain assault weapons, unless they were used for sporting purposes.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton expanded on the Bush Administration move by banning the import of almost five dozen different assault weapons that had been modified to get through that "sporting purposes" exemption.
How many options are available to the President when it comes to executive orders and guns? I'm no expert, but it would seem to boil down to a series of basic federal gun laws, like the Gun Control Act of 1968, the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the National Instant Background Check System that was part of the 1993 Brady handgun law.
Can the President simply issue an executive order to ban the sale of certain weapons? I'm no legal expert, but it would seem like the White House could only nibble around the edges of this debate with executive orders when it comes to imported weapons, maybe background checks and reporting of multiple gun purchases.
More dramatic gun restrictions would likely only be possible through legislation, not executive fiat or the promulgation of new regulations.
I keep getting lots of messages from listeners and readers that President Obama will issue an executive order to limit the sales of guns and/or ammuition, but I don't see existing federal laws that would allow for such a move by the White House, like the examples above from Presidents Bush and Clinton.
"Slippery slope," said one reader via Twitter, as many argued the President would simply ignore that legal underpinning.
But it seems like that argument also ignores the current legal situation - because if it was so easy for a President to unilaterally enact sweeping gun controls, wouldn't someone have done it already?
