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surprise_i'm_armed wrote:Methinks Obama was humoring the anti's telling him that he was going to do something "under the radar".

I'm thinking this is the most likely explanation. It's not like Obama is at all opposed to lying to people to get votes--just look at his record for keeping promises from his campaign.

AndyC wrote:Wouldn't put it past him to issue an Executive Order on his way out.

An executive order to do what? It's the job of Congress to pass laws, and there's no enabling legislation from Congress to allow him to order a magazine ban. There's no way the President can, on his own, outlaw the manufacture and sale of certain gun or magazines.

Executive orders aren't a way for the President to enact laws without going through the legislative process. In general they can only dictate what executive agencies do--eg the import bans are possible because the Gun Control Act allows the State Department to decide what gets imported, and the President can tell the State Department what to allow.

I don't even see a way they could do a magazine ban without going through Congress.

Import bans--yeah, they have some room to work because of the sporting purpose restrictions in the Gun Control Act. Could probably make some trouble with ammo importation as well.

Something big like a magazine capacity restriction, though, would require an act of Congress (like it did the first time) and there's no way that gets through.