Obama could lay out multiple executive actions as soon as next week.

President Barack Obama will meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to consider measures aimed at reducing gun violence, a conversation that comes as he prepares to announce new executive actions in the coming days. Facing stiff resistance to gun-control legislation in Congress, Mr. Obama has signaled that he plans to act on his own. The president has directed administration officials to explore any steps he could take on guns without lawmakers’ help, and he said in his weekly address that he would sit down with Ms. Lynch on Monday “to discuss our options.”

Gun-control advocates who are familiar with the White House’s plans say Mr. Obama could lay out multiple executive actions as soon as next week, and administration officials have confirmed that recommendations for the president are nearing completion. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Mr. Obama asked his team to “scrub existing legal authorities” and assess actions that could be taken administratively. “The president has made clear he’s not satisfied with where we are and expects that work to be completed soon,” Mr. Schultz said. Gun-control groups said they expect the White House to tighten rules for firearms sellers by requiring more of them to be licensed and, as a result, to conduct background checks on buyers. The Center for American Progress, which has close ties to the White House, released a report in October detailing options for strengthening those regulations and redefining what it means to be engaged in the business of dealing in firearms. Everytown for Gun Safety, the group led by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released its own report on this subject in November and made several recommendations to the White House, including urging that a numerical barrier be set for the number of annual sales permissible as an individual seller. “Under current law, the dividing line between the professional gun sellers and everyone else is unnecessarily vague,” said Ted Alcorn, the research director for Everytown. The president met in November with Mr. Bloomberg and John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, to discuss potential executive actions Mr. Obama could pursue. Many gun-rights groups already have signaled opposition to new rules for private sellers and an expansion of background checks. And they have questioned whether Mr. Obama has the legal authority to act unilaterally. Research by the National Rifle Association showed that dating back to the 2007 mass murder at Virginia Tech, none of the high-profile mass shootings has been conducted with a firearm bought from a private seller. Adam Lanza is believed to have stolen his mother’s gun after killing her then using it in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. “I don’t think the president has the authority to redefine what a dealer is because that is defined in existing federal statute,” said Dave Workman, senior editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s The Gun Mag. “He can’t snap his fingers and suddenly say to someone who sells a gun at a gun show is now a dealer. That would take congressional action.”

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