On Wednesday, Barr declared the legislative effort officially dead, while rolling out an operation that aimed to take illegal guns off the streets.

The gun initiative, known as Project Guardian, was among the proposals offered by the Justice Department in September. It amounts to one of the few responses to the mass shootings that the Trump administration has offered.

“Unfortunately, our discussions on the legislative aspects of this have been sidetracked because of the impeachment process on the Hill, and so we are going forward with all the operational steps that we can take that do not require legislative action,” Barr said.