Why do we even need Congress and the courts when Obama can just use executive orders to rule by decree?

“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”

Biden said that this is a moral issue and that “it’s critically important that we act.”

Biden talked also about taking responsible action. “As the president said, if you’re actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking. But I’m convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of americans and take thousands of people out of harm’s way if we act responsibly.”

Every American, gun owner, or not, should be very afraid of this development. The Vice President has indicated that he and the President are going to act extra-constitutionally in order to impose policies that are not supported by the American people or the Constitution. This is not what American government is supposed to be about, nor is it how it is supposed to operate.

Indeed, I can't help but having the same reaction as one Republican Congressman.

“The Founding Fathers never envisioned Executive Orders being used to restrict our Constitutional rights,” Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) said in a statement Wednesday. “We live in a republic, not a dictatorship.”

* * *

“I will use every means at my disposal to combat the agenda of the Executive branch to undermine our Second Amendment rights. I will also fight any legislative action that is taken to implement more gun control,” he said. “Americans don’t want their Second Amendment freedoms restricted in any way and I will continue to fully support the right to bear arms for all law abiding citizens.”

There was a time I would have thought such words were hyperbole -- but is it really all that outrageous a sentiment when we have a president ready to tamper with and limit our rights all on his own?