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At a White House meeting about gun control this morning, Vice President Joe Biden said his boss was fully prepared to take executive action to reduce gun violence, an important but limited way to bypass the inevitable Congressional roadblocks.

“The president is going to act,” Mr. Biden said. “There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet, but we’re compiling it all.”

Most changes to the current system, which allows easy access to weapons with hugely destructive power, has to come through legislation. A renewed and more effective assault weapons ban, limits on high-capacity magazines, stiffer penalties for carrying guns near schools — all these measures would require the assent of Congress to be enacted. And Republicans, particularly in the House, have made it clear that they intend to oppose most of President Obama’s plans.

But there are several significant steps the president can take on his own.



Perhaps most importantly, he can strengthen the database that the F.B.I. uses to perform background checks on gun buyers. Many federal agencies that don’t currently contribute to the database, such as the Social Security Administration, have access to mental competence information about prospective buyers, or details about failed drug tests and other issues that might prevent a sale to the wrong person. Through an order, the president can get these agencies to share more information with the F.B.I.. As Charlie Savage of The Times recently reported, the Justice Department has studied several similar ideas to improve the background-check system, most of which have been shelved.

The president could also demand that the states share more information from their crime and mental-health databases.

Mayor Bloomberg recently noted that the government is not prosecuting most felons who illegally try to buy guns, and others who lie on their background checks. Of 71,000 such cases in 2009, the Justice Department only prosecuted 77. The White House could demand a much higher prosecution rate.

President Obama has already ordered border states to report on people who buy more than one semi-automatic rifle. His rationale was drug-cartel violence, but he could expand the order to other states.

Finally, it has been six years since the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has had a permanent director. Senators who follow the gun lobby’s bidding have managed to block all nominees on various pretexts, part of a scheme to keep the agency toothless. While they have also hobbled the agency with legal restrictions to keep it ineffective, a full-time director could make a significant impact, which is why Mr. Obama should bypass the Senate and make a recess appointment.