
New Jersey – -(AmmoLand.com)- With the impending doom of gunmegeddon and the uncertainty of what may come from all the introduced bills, there is big talk about the White House taking executive measures to stop so-called gun violence. You might have missed it, but I did something clever. I said “executive measures”, essentially is a non-sense phrase. Why does that matter? Because of a very interesting thing that was pointed out in a recent video I watched.
Like many of our readers, I’m a subscriber of many content creators. I take in Second Amendment information all day every day. Unlike some content creators that take from well-researched articles and do not cite their sources (you know who you are out there and we know you do it, toss us a bone once in a while please!) to make their videos, I’m going to take from a well-researched video and tell you exactly where I’m getting the information from.
Braden Langley, from the Langley Outdoors Academy has a youtube channel and puts out some really great and regular content. A former student and now friend of mine turned me onto his material and his channel is growing. Langley’s videos are short, to the point, and my personal favorite, he cites all his sources. Braden is a content creator but is not afraid to share the credit where credit is due.
On March 29, 2021, Langley put out a video: “Biden’s Gun Control Executive “Order” or “Actions”?… We may be getting played here…”
In it he goes into detail about the fancy wordplay that is going on concerning the executive measures that the Biden Administration may or may not take. I’m just using the phrase executive measures to include the White House’s cache of executive actions versus executive orders. Looking into what Langley explains, I wanted to follow up with some more supporting details, and found in an NPR article by Scott Neuman the following information:
A presidential executive order “is a directive issued to federal agencies, department heads, or other federal employees by the President of the United States under his statutory or constitutional powers,” according to Robert Longley, writing at usgovinfo.about.com. “In many ways, presidential executive orders are similar to written orders, or instructions issued by the president of a corporation to its department heads or directors.”
By contrast, a presidential executive action is kind of a catch-all term, writes NBC, which quoted an unnamed administration official in 2011 as saying: “It just means something the executive branch does. The use of any of a number of tools in the executive branch’s toolbox.”
Political writer Tom Murse says: “[Most] executive actions carry no legal weight. Those that do actually set policy can be invalidated by the courts or undone by legislation passed by Congress.”
Langley in his video cited: Executive action vs. executive order: What’s the difference? if you want to follow up with his research.
Watching one of the recent press conferences that Langely cites, where there were questions about executive orders, let’s pay close attention to the wordplay:
Reporter: And just to get some clarity on yesterday, are we, should we still be expecting executive orders from the president on gun measures?
Psaki: Yes
Reporter: Defiantly, or what, what do you, like a month from now? What do you think the time-frame is?
Psaki then went on to explain about when Biden was part of the Obama administration and in her little word sparring talked about all the executive actions that the duo was involved in. Question from a reporter was about ‘executive orders’, Psaki replied ‘yes’ to that question, but followed up by talking about ‘executive actions.’ So massive hat tip to Braden Langley for catching that little nuance. We can have executive actions, executive orders, my new favorite executive measures, executive circle backs, executive you know the thing man that we hold to be self-evident c’mon…
The presser where this q and a occurred can be watched in full here:
As Langley states in his content, if we as a country are looking at “executive actions”, they essentially hold no actual weight of law and can be undone easily.
One other cute headline I read while reading about this: “Analysis: Biden White House tries to craft gun executive orders that can’t be undone”, from a Reuters article, further expands in the body of their text:
The White House is trying to craft a series of executive actions for President Joe Biden to sign to try to limit gun violence, hoping they cannot be quickly dismantled in court, according to aides and gun safety groups.
They baited readers with the phrase “executive orders” and did the switch to “executive actions” in the actual reporting.
There are two takeaways here. One, whatever Biden does concerning “actions” will hold little to no weight of law at all, and all easy to be undone. Two, give credit where credit is due. Many thanks again to Langley for creating his video on the subject. For other content creators out there, a simple hat tip would be nice to some of us 2A writers. Many of us can also be reached as well for comment, we’re all in this together!
Langley’s video can be viewed in full here:
John Petrolino is a US Merchant Marine Officer, writer, author of Decoding Firearms: An Easy to Read Guide on General Gun Safety & Use and NRA certified pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructor living under and working to change New Jersey’s draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. You can find him on the web at www.johnpetrolino.com on twitter at @johnpetrolino and on instagram @jpetrolinoiii .


honestly, i don’t think the media knows the difference between executive order and executive action. they probably think they are the same. if they do, they just gush with wonderment that the imbecile in the oval office thinks like they do. definitely would not be the same if the other party was in there. i have many friends from other countries whom i have spoken to and they all tell me that they came to America to escape the communist/socialist governments in their home country, but are now seeing it happen here. how can it be that our own people… Read more »
Sorry to be a bit off topic, but the way that Biden holds his hands in that “iconic” photo of him imaginarily holding a long gun, shows that he doesn’t quite have a feel for it. It is hard to tell whether he thinks he is holding a long gun, or he is using his right hand as a pretend pistol, sighting along the side of his thumb. A real sad sack, pretending to have a feel for this.
You guys talk like Biden is alive and thinking. These actions or orders are from the group that pulls his strings. They just slap his face on it trying to make them look legit. Which is impossible, given the illegit nature of how he got where he got. He is an empty meatsack wheeled out to parrot what he’s been told. He may sometimes think he’s in charge, but he’s got no say in what comes from the Whitehouse, same as when he was in his basement. Someone with such advanced stage dementia who can’t form a complete sentence, is… Read more »
You really have to parse words with everything said by a politician or reporter. Most pol’s are lawyers, by education, that’s why they love to talk with big words and write those long ass bills that no one can read. Reporters, are not lawyers, but use words to distract, mislead or cover-up almost exclusively, now that they’ve given up any semblance of journalism. The problem is that the general public is not listening critically, and just accept what they’re told, without nuance. Headlines, sound bites, the shiny object, are all taken in without question. Anymore, to know what is really… Read more »
Simply put.
An Executive Order instructs Agencies how to enforce the law. NOT change it.
(Ban bump stocks was neither an EO or EA. ATF and DoJ changed the Law illegally based on President Trump didn’t like them))
An Executive Action is a President’s Wish List of what he wants an Agency to do, suggestions from the Agency on how they would do it. No Real Effect.
The government is denied any power to legislate the ownership, possession, and use of weapons of war. This is explicitly spelled out in the 2nd Amendment. Any elected official attempting to invalidate the clear and concise language written in the highest law of the land is overtly committing treason. It’s just this simple: The government is denied a power. When an elected official claims that denied power and attempts to use it, he or she is acting as a tyrant and attempting to subvert and destroy the nation that is based on the republican rule of law. Attempting to subvert… Read more »
Nope , sorry clown show Joe Biden your executive actions will not pass the test in court . They will mean nothing and be dismissed as unconstitutional. You are irrelevant because you are not our legitimate president clown show Joe Biden . 80 million people do NOT accept the election results of 2020 . We will ignore you for the next 3.5 years CLOWN SHOW Joe Biden . You do not exist as president in reality only in the blue utopia of lies and deception you are irrelevant CLOWN SHOW Joe Biden !
I like that you are hopeful about these executive orders.
President Trump’s directive to the department of justice to ban bumpstocks is still in effect in my state.
Any executive orders Biden issues or likely to remain in effect for four or even eight more years
i keep getting down on Joe but tonight I was thinking that several times he has looked straight into the (loving) cameras and said ‘I’m not supposed to take questions” or “I’m supposed to leave now or I’ll get in trouble”. Maybe ,just maybe, he is trting to tell us that he is being FORCED to act the bumbling fool, forgetting his place and misspeaking so very frequently. Does AOC or “the Russians’ have a hook in him? or is it CHINA ? just athought. Biden has almost always been a moderate, now he is an over the top progressive,… Read more »
Do you think that pehaps Isreal’s own terrorist history might have a little something to do with this??