Advocates for stricter gun laws have long been pushing for more explicit rules on what it means to be a gun dealer. The president considered using executive power in this way after the shooting massacre that killed 20 children and six women in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, but ultimately opted against it. At the time, he announced 23 other executive initiatives related to gun violence, and urged Congress to pass legislation to reduce gun violence.

“Back in 2013, there was a real sense that all of us might come together and actually agree on some common-sense gun legislation. I think that that hope—at least in the Obama administration—has passed at this point,” Erickson Hatalsky said. “They may be willing to go further than they were in the past because they are no longer trying to court anyone in Congress.”

While Obama appears willing to do more than he has in recent years, the president is still unlikely to make sweeping changes to the nation’s gun laws. There are a few reasons for this. For one thing, Obama has already stretched the limits of what he can do with his presidential authority when it comes to tightening gun laws. That happened after the Connecticut elementary school massacre in 2012.

The limitations of executive power are such that the president can only alter existing laws or make administrative changes to existing programs; he can't create new laws from scratch by himself. A more modest approach is also more likely to stick, at least for a while. “It can get tied up in the courts pretty easily, and the courts seem open to dealing with questions of executive power,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “Conservatives are ready to challenge anything he does on this, and he’s aware of that.”

Timing is another challenging factor. Obama’s presidency is nearly over. “The next president can get rid of whatever he does,” Zelizer said. “The durability of executive action is much thinner than legislation, and much more fragile.”

Republican candidates have already told voters they plan to undo Obama’s work using their own executive action, if elected. “We’re going to be unsigning a lot of executive orders,” Donald Trump recently promised on the campaign trail, according to The Daily Caller.

Although the majority of Americans believe gun sales should be stricter, according to an October Gallup poll, many Republicans believe Obama will go too far if he uses executive power at all. But the idea that Obama would do anything dramatic, like an attempt to ban firearms or significantly restrict access to them—an approach taken in several other countries following mass shootings—is unrealistic.

“Unless somehow he invokes wartime power, but that’s not going to happen,” Zelizer said. “No, he has to deal with laws pertaining to background checks and licenses and try to take action through that. Without question, his preference is legislation, but I think he just doesn't see that happening. Even if public opinion is strongly on the side on regulation, the process is broken.”

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