Los Angeles Times on Biden’s moves to curb gun violence:

President Joe Biden announced a slate of actions Thursday aimed at fulfilling his campaign promise to combat the proliferation of firearms and gun violence that kill some 40,000 people a year in this countr y. But the moves, while necessar y and welcome, also spotlight how few options a president has for addressing an issue that’s critical to public safety and public health.

The fact is, there just isn’t a lot a president can do unilaterally when it comes to gun control, the template for which is dictated is by Congress. Lawmakers have given the administration limited regulator y authority over firearms, and Biden directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to develop new rules on sales of gun parts that can, with a little machine work, be assembled into untraceable weapons called ghost guns.

He also ordered regulations on stabilizers that in effect convert unregulated assault-style handguns into ersatz rifles, like the one used in the Boulder massacre two weeks ago. What those regulations ultimately will say is the dangling question, but to be effective, they must at a minimum treat core parts like fully functional firearms, including requiring trackable serial numbers.

The bulk of the president’s agenda, though, is actually a wish list for congressional action. Biden reiterated his support for two bills the House passed in March that would expand mandator y background checks to include nearly ever y transfer of a firearm, a long-overdue requirement. He also endorsed a far-too-modest proposal that would extend from three days to 10 the amount of time the government has to complete a background check before the sale can proceed by default. That bill would only partially close a dangerous loophole.

These are all common sense approaches to reduce gun deaths, and it’s disturbing that they are such heavy lifts in a Congress so beholden to the myth that an armed nation is a safer nation. But that’s the political reality that Americans, and Biden, are confronted with. Let the fight begin.