Obama’s “executive orders” on guns are not executive orders at all, and their impact is likely to be limited

President Obama’s unilateral directives on gun control issued last week have been praised by his supporters and described as “imperial overreach” by his detractors. Despite this approval and opprobrium, Joshua Kennedy argues that the measures announced by Obama are not “executive orders”, but are simply a collection of suggestions, requests, and minor rulemaking steps which do little to contradict existing laws, and may well be discarded or changed before they can be implemented.