Joe Biden is expected to reveal his planned executive actions on firearms today. According to reports ahead of his announcement, Biden will specifically take aim at requiring background checks for the sale of a new bogeyman — so-called “ghost guns,” or firearms without serial numbers that are often homemade. Is this just tinkering around the edges, or is he getting a foot in the door for something bigger?

The so-called “ghost guns” category is intentionally vague terminology that creates an impression of illegality, similar to the erroneous “assault rifle” designation. Biden’s order would classify 80% lowers, components sold separately without serial numbers, as firearms. By classifying them as such, a buyer would be subject to a background check. But Biden hopes for an essential ban on the sale of these “ghost guns.”

A Biden administration official claimed that “criminals are buying these kits, which contain nearly all of the components and directions for finishing a firearm within as little as 30 minutes, and then using them to commit a crime.”

Biden’s order will also compel the Justice Department to come up with a “red flag” legislation model for all states. Furthermore, he wants the DOJ to come up with a rule regarding a pistol “stabilizing brace” in order to have them “subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act” — a rule that will force gun owners to pay a $200 tax stamp on those firearms.

Meanwhile, what may be even more troubling is Biden’s choice for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — gun-control activist and former ATF agent David Chipman, whose understanding of the Second Amendment is wanting to say the least. “What I support is treating [AR-15s] just like machine guns. To me, if you want to have a weapon of war, the same gun that was issued to me as a member of [the] ATF SWAT team, it makes sense that you would have to pass a background check, the gun would have to be in your name, and there would be a picture and fingerprints on file,” Chipman stated in a recent interview. “To me, I don’t mind doing it if I want to buy a gun. These policies just protect the criminal. Like, I don’t think you should be able to anonymously purchase 20 AR-15s at one time, and the government shouldn’t know. I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all that you have to pass a background check to own a weapon of war.”

You know it’s bad when CNN praises Chipman as a “fierce advocate for gun control.”

While Biden has backed away from attempting to order an outright ban on so-called “assault rifles” like the AR-15, he’s only doing so knowing that such an order would be immediately challenged and likely overturned. He and other Democrats want to get an “assault weapons” ban passed through Congress, where it would be much more difficult to strike down.