Barack Obama thinks it’s way too easy to buy a gun, and he wants to “fix” that. “As long as you can go in some neighborhoods and it is easier for you to buy a firearm than it is for you to buy a book – there are neighborhoods where it is easier for you to buy a handgun and clips than it is for you to buy a fresh vegetable – as long as that’s the case, we’re going to continue to see unnecessary violence,” Obama warned at a town hall meeting at Benedict College. Clearly frustrated with Congress for not fully exploiting the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 to pass gun control, Obama complained, “I thought … what happened at Sandy Hook would make us think about it. You would have thought that’s got to be enough of a motivator. But we couldn’t get it done.” Without Congress, he said, “It is difficult to reduce the availability of guns.” That is his goal, after all. However, he added, “We’ve tried to get as much done administratively” as possible.

Indeed he has. The ATF is promoting a ban on M855 ammunition, which is widely used in AR-15s for target shooting. Indeed, the ban was published in the ATF’s latest Firearms Regulation Reference Guide, released in January. When reporter Katie Pavlich called them out, the ATF backtracked, claiming “[It] was an error which has no legal impact on the validity of the exemptions.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the ban won’t take effect, just that the ATF announced it prematurely. Obama has 700 days, a phone and a pen. He won’t stop with green-tip ammo.