Like many of you, I was a bit anxious about what President Obama was planning to announce last Wednesday. I’d seen a lot of fearful, breathless predictions from an assortment of conservative writers and pro-gun websites, along with some bold assertions from anti-gunners. Knowing how much backlash any sort of executive order gun ban would bring, I watched the initial news reports from the edge of my chair at the office.

Happily, it appears the president has stayed well within both his legal bounds and the bounds of common sense in issuing 20 “executive actions” (not really the same as executive orders, more like agenda items) and three presidential memoranda, which pretty much are executive orders. Let’s set aside the emotion and take a look at all 23 things the president has actually done here.