To be fair, Prohibition has BEEN going on as long as the "war of drugs" has been going on. But I digress...

I don't see how this is a "prohibition" on guns. It is a limitation on the sale of guns, and the government is trying to figure out what the highest-risk groups to sell them to is. I agree that a lot of the order is pretty fluffy and doesn't provide enough definite direction, but I do think that between this list and his statements during the speech, Obama reached out very well to people who care about their second amendment rights, while still making it known that there are situations where it is high-risk to allow people to keep a firearm in their home. All in all, it seems like a very moderate step, and not wholly prohibitory.

Honestly, Obama did not add anything to the law in his orders. What he did do was apply everything he had to enforce rules and regulations which were often not, as well as authorize and encourage actions which were allowed but not acted on. This seems to be the role of the Executive branch - the executor of the law.

I think the most important thing he did is encourage greater investigation into the matter of gun violence, whether by studying the effects of violent video games or by tracking and assessing mental illnesses that correlate to higher gun risks. Even if you don't agree that those are the causes (I don't think violent media is a causal factor, for example), I can entirely get behind his statement that "it cannot hurt to have the information". It is better to be aware and act on it, than purposely ignore it because we won't like what we find.