As of March 2021, President Joe Biden has already signed 37 executive orders. Recently, he confirmed that he’s looking at his options for an executive order to control firearms.
“Can we expect any gun control executive orders soon?” he was asked at a press conference on March 26.
“Well, we’re looking at that right now,” he responded. “We’re looking at what kind of authority I have relative to imported weapons, as well as whether or not I have any authority to—these new weapons that are being made by 3D equipment that aren’t registered as guns at all, there may be some latitude there as well.”
The President’s attitude toward the Second Amendment hasn’t been met positively by the majority of people across the country. According to an ABC/Ipsos poll from March 28, 2021, 57% of Americans disapprove of how President Biden is handling gun violence.
But it doesn’t stop there. He’s being pressured by lawmakers to take executive action—such as reclassifying the Ruger AR-556 pistol as a rifle—and fast. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that executive orders were in the President’s playbook.
“When the President was the Vice President in the Obama-Biden administration, he helped put in place 23 executive actions to combat gun violence,” Psaki said at one of the daily press conferences. “It’s one of the levers that we can use—that any federal government, any President can use to help address the prevalence of gun violence and address community safety around the country.”
With 37 executive orders already on the books, will he sign one on gun control? If so, how might a potential executive order affect you, the law-abiding gun owner?
The Authority of the President
The President of the United States of America has the ability to issue executive orders. In fact, executive orders can be traced all the way back to this country’s first President, George Washington. An executive order is a means of issuing federal directives by the President to manage the operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources.
The authority of the President to issue an executive order is not expressly stated in the United States Constitution, but rather implied. This implied power comes from Article II, Section 1, which states: “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Furthermore, Section 3 of Article II states that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
In some cases, the President has statutory authority to issue executive orders, as codified in Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations with the force of law. Although the President does not need Congressional approval to issue an executive order, Congress can revoke an executive order by enacting new laws subject to the President’s veto power or withholding federal funding. Executive orders are not, however, without limitations and are subject to legal review by the federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Extraordinary Power of Presidential Orders
Although executive orders are directives to the government and federal agencies—rather than individuals—many historic examples demonstrate the impact on individual rights. If an agency is forced to change a policy because of an executive order, then that policy can directly affect the average American.
In the many years since our founding as a country, there have been some noteworthy executive orders issued by Presidents that greatly affected people; some severely limited their rights under the Constitution and seem outright antithetical to our American ideals today. Here are some noteworthy examples:
- President Harry Truman: Faced with a massive strike by the steel industry during the Korean War, President Truman signed Executive Order 10340 on April 8, 1952. This order allowed the Secretary of Commerce to take possession of certain American steel mills and ordered all federal agencies to assist as necessary in the plant and facility seizures. This was quickly ruled by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional.
- President Woodrow Wilson: Demonstrating that executive orders can impact specific aspects of life—even hunting—through Executive Order 1884, President Wilson made hunting with the use of a “lantern, torch, bonfire, or other artificial light” a misdemeanor offense. Furthermore, Wilson signed many other executive orders covering hiring, anti-corruption efforts, telegraph and wireless services, and postal crimes, and he even got involved in the day-to-day operations of the Panama Canal Zone… all by executive order.
- President Abraham Lincoln: President Lincoln took a drastic and controversial step to sign an executive order that suspended habeas corpus and the right of the accused to report unlawful detention. This was done to stop a Southern-sympathizing legislator from blocking the movement of Union troops to Washington, which was virtually undefended at the start of the Civil War. While the initial order only allowed for warrantless arrest between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., President Lincoln also suspended habeas corpus and imposed martial law in Kentucky on July 5, 1864.
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (“FDR”): Through Executive Order 9066, President Roosevelt authorized the detention of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans. Taken mostly from the West Coast, approximately 60% of those interned were American citizens who were denied the right of habeas corpus and placed in detention facilities because of their Japanese ancestry.
Gold, Guns, and Presidential Orders
Another noteworthy FDR action occurred on April 5, 1933, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, requiring Americans to surrender their gold (other than gold jewelry, gold coins, and a very small amount of gold bullion) to the government for payment of the then prevailing value of the gold surrendered.
If you could be forced to surrender gold by executive order, is it a stretch to think that guns could be handled the same way? To date, a mandatory buyback has never been attempted. One failed 2020 presidential candidate memorably proclaimed during a debate in Houston, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” Could this candidate have been thinking of a possible executive order?
Beyond executive orders, the President has other executive powers such as issuing a proclamation and/or memorandum. A recent example of this is the banning of bump stocks. In 2018, President Donald Trump used his executive power, through memorandum, to require the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to ban bump stocks by changing their regulations. Of course, President Trump is not the first to use his executive power to restrict firearms. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, President Barack Obama issued several executive actions involving gun control. These actions included:
- Directing federal agencies to share background check information with one another.
- Giving money to the states for sharing background check information.
- Reviewing the criteria of who should be prohibited from purchasing, possessing, or transferring firearms and ammunition.
- Launching a “safe and responsible” gun ownership campaign.
- Requiring federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
- Clarifying that doctors, under the Affordable Care Act, may ask their patients about guns in their homes.
In Conclusion
Executive orders are a powerful tool of government that can easily change depending on the particular Commander-in-Chief and their desired policies. What will Biden do with his power? With over half of Americans polled voicing their disapproval on how President Biden is handling gun laws, your guess is as good as ours. But given his recent comments, law-abiding gun owners should be on the lookout for an executive order that might possibly impact their daily lives.
Read more: The Gun Control Playbook: Three Threats to Your Rights
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NO, HE CANNOT!
Shall not be infringed.
Correct me if I’m wrong. But an executive order can not violate an americans constitutional rights. The USC is the Supreme law 9f the land and he cannot violate that.
I may be way off track. Yet, a leader request can not abuse American protected rights. The USC is the Supreme law 9f the land and he can’t abuse that.
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Biden being in office without being duly elected is illegal to begin with. Ignore this senile creature.
Sleepy Joe CAN issue such orders. And federal agents CAN enforce them. It might take months or years for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality thereby creating a hazardous grey zone for the citizen. And given that the current Supreme Court is full of cowards, who refused to rule on (state)-unconstitutional arbitrary regulations on state voting laws during the 2020 election, the S-C review might never happen. What I have read so far is that these sanctuary resolutions MAY keep local law enforcement officials from cooperating with the federales, and that WOULD be quite a hindrance to the de facto, on the ground enforcement of Sleepy’s dictates. I’d say we are headed for a constitutional crisis, which would be a much needed wake-up call for on-the-fence patriots to speak up, get active at the local and state level. We might be entering the stage where massive local civil disobedience is necessary, much like the Polish people did in the 1980s in communist Poland to delegitimize and demoralize the government they had there.
Well he can issue such orders, but how will he inforce them? Going house to house with military? I purchased my guns they are MINE. If Biden wants guns I suggest he buy his own!
With a new federal police force that displaces the local Sherrif’s department once the “Defund the Police” program is over and people are complaining of the chaos that ensues. So after a lot of complaining, many deaths, car-jacking festivals, lootings, the new government everyday police force emerges saying, “We’re here to help.” Can you say Stasi? Gestapo?
And he has is own. The point is we shouldn’t have any only the special people.
The President cannot executive order the people’s rights away. The President does not have the authority to create law at all, not by executive order or otherwise.
Neither does the President, or the executive branch of government hold any such authority over the bill of rights.
Using FDRs gold grab is comparing apples to oranges, even though FDR himself was the biggest traitor ever elected President in modern time.
The right to own gold or currency is not a right.
The second amendment is a bonafide inalienable right that sits beyond the realm of government including the President and his office.
If the American people ever lose their inalienable right to bear arms against any and all forms of tyranny. Then the American citizenry let it happen and the fault will be their own doing. If such a day ever comes, the American people must not lie down in submission to the forces of tyranny.
If the second amendment ever falls, the entire bill of rights will fall like dominos.
This entire country has long been acting like the President is some kind of goddamned king with infinite powers of wannabe royalty in controlling all aspects of life.
The President is not a god, king, judge, sheriff, or law maker.
The President is not the ruler of the American people and the bill of rights are certainly not privileges from the president.
This is all happing today because American society failed to act generation’s ago when it all first started happening.
The American people must restore the powers of the presidency back intended role within the framework of the constitution.
This requires the American people to stop submitting to every false inflated piece of political make-believe the President or the rest of the government tries to get away with.
American society needs to learn what the real powers of the executive and government really are, call out their bullshit, and let it be known to all that none will abide.
The American citizen has a duty to the constitution to fight, disobey, and resist all Unconstitutionalities.
Lest we forget the government derives its power from the consent of governed.
Would start a revolution and they know it. Ain’t gonna happen
Instead of expressly stated in the United States Constitution, the President’s authority to issue an Executive Order is implicit.
-Criminals and murderers will still find a way to be criminals and murderers…
-If one person drinks alcohol, drives drunk and kills someone, do we take the cars and/or alcohol away from everyone? No?Well, we should start. Alcohol kills more people than guns and violence.
I do not own a gun, but I believe in my right to do so if I choose.
I believe in my neighbors right to do the same.
-God was removed from everything but our money.
-Our pledge of allegiance to our country, that so many have died for, is no longer acceptable, because it may offend someone.
-Politics has turned into a shady means of fulfilling personal interests rather than a means of governing the people, who elect these officials… Our leaders should lead by example and make the same amount of money as the hourly wage earner. Instead, they work harder for to give banks bailouts for favors
When did this all get out of hand? How can we fix it?
Not if the sheriff’s in your state doesn’t comply.
DAMN, SOMEONE JUST STOLE ALL MY GUNS!
SORRY BIDEN!
Uncle Joe’s administration has already disregarded an order of the Supreme Court. He also believes that he needs only two shotgun shells (both of which he fires as warnings) to defend his residence against an unknown number of home invaders. Vice-president Harris has an even stronger inclination to confiscate lawfully owned firearms by executive fiat. It seems that individual, constitutional liberties – like free and fair elections – are going to be scrapped by the “woke,” Marxist Dem elite.
Except for people who are determined to be prohibited possessors or are ensnared by a red flag law, “Taking away guns” always starts with gun registration. I suppose the way that would work is that an army of ATF employees (paid with recently-printed money) would go to everyone’s place of residence and demand a listing of their firearms and locations, or be subject to arrest or imprisonment. I know that the proper response is to say “I need to call my lawyer” (and then call the US & TX Lawshield lawyer.) But what if the ATF agent says “I have a search warrant”, and pulls out some sort of incomprehensible legal document, and/or says “I am a federal agent and I don’t have time for this” and arrests you anyway? I just want to know what to do in the event that this actually happens, as it usually does at some point in every country that is slipping into marxism.
The constitution is the Supreme law of the land all laws must mirror the constitution period .
The 2A at the end says exactly this anybody with half a brain should be able to understand which all demorats don’t have a function one , so its understandable they don’t know what SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED means
After reading the article your answer is… NOTHING, NO Answer! Seriously? Short answer, NO it is NOT Constitutional for the President to destroy any part of the Constitution through an EO! But MARXIST Globalist don’t give a damn about the Constitution and fully intend to destroy it! Connect the dots, EVERYTHING they do is for a reason/purpose! EVERYTHING that is happening today which is unconstitutional has a specific purpose! One reason for allowing all the ILLEGALS to enter America Illegally, over 90% are men between 18 and 30, who are being trained to fight against legal citizens of the US, is to create a Biden Special Police/Military. They are the force being planned to use fighting Americans and backing UN Forces when they enter America as “Peace Keepers”. So yes, Biden plans to issue an EO to grab our guns then use these ILLEGALS to enforce his DICKtator Rules. Everyone I know is awake and expecting Civil War II on American soil within a few years max.
The 2A
It is a necessary law to protect the citizen and give him the opportunity to defend his own life and that of his family if necessary
It’s sad that most sheriffs around the states do not realize how much constitutional power and authority they have. The only constitutionally recognized law enforcement agency as the law of the land is the sheriff’s department. They don’t have to comply or give in to any other agency, even Federal agencies do not have power over our sheriff’s authority…………..our sheriff’s just need to have the balls to stand up to these federal bullies and say ….not in my county!!!!