# What executive orders could Obama give vis-a-vis gun control? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 9, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665 "2013-01-09T20:07:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665/141 "2013-01-17T23:38:50Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Obama had a Democratic majority in both houses for 2 years. Not quite, but let’s call it close enough, because I think it misses the real point. Political power is about more than just the instrumental analysis of counting up the number of Democrats and concluding they can do anything they damn well please. Actual politics is way more complicated than that. It involves primary threats, public perception, outside attacks, political capital, and a dozen other factors. Political actors are constrained by more than their consciences, and so if we’re going to analyze the failure to exercise political power, we have to do more than just count numbers. I think there can be little serious doubt that the reason the Democrats didn’t do more to fund ATF is because of the Republicans and the NRA, and to a lesser extent because some of those Democrats agree with the Republicans and the NRA. Why do we care to assign such abstract blame? Because the solution involves pushing back against whatever levers of power are causing the result we don’t like. Those who think the ATF should enforce the laws on the books need to first identify the cause of the failure to do so before planning a solution. > [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I would have liked to see Obama at least try to push for the resources in his directives to get the funding he needs. We’re seeing that now, aren’t we? He finally wants to try to appoint an actual head of the ATF, for example. As to “why not earlier,” I think there are a half-dozen plausible reasons: he didn’t think he had the capital, he didn’t understand the issue, he knew Congress wouldn’t go for it, he was focusing on other more important things, etc. etc. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665/142 "2013-01-17T23:46:37Z")
It’s worth noting that a significant minority of the Democratic majority (if you’ll excuse the phrasing) were Blue Dogs from gun-heavy, pro-NRA states. It’s not as though the NRA-ILA _never_ endorses a (D) candidate (other than for POTUS). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665/143 "2013-01-17T23:49:38Z")
Precisely. That is among the reasons counting the Ds and Rs is a woefully incomplete way to analyze political power in Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665/144 "2013-01-18T16:15:04Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > They needed to be handcuffed. Is there any need for an ATF-like agency to exist? If so, you can either reform the existing ATF or abolish it and start from scratch. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665/145 "2013-01-21T16:58:06Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > It was a sting _designed_ to fail. In a typical sting, you would have some mechanism or plan for recovering the contraband. In Fast & Furious, it was more of a “lets turn all these guns over to the Mexican drug cartels and see where they turn up”. They made zero effort to track or recover most of the guns. Is this established fact? Rob [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-executive-orders-could-obama-give-vis-a-vis-gun-control/646665.md?page=7)