Tag: atf

ATF Is Key To Biden’s Gun Control Plans

It looks like a confirmation hearing for the former ATF agent turned gun control activists who Joe Biden nominated to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will take place in just a few weeks, and the administration appears to be engaging in a bit of pre-hearing spin with the help of the New York Times. In a lengthy new piece, reporters Danny Hakim and Mike McIntire portray the agency that oversees our nation’s gun laws and firearms industry as the “whipping boy” for the NRA in years past, but the ATF is now at the heart of Biden’s gun control agenda.

Mr. Biden has ordered a ban on the homemade-firearm kits known as “ghost guns,” a prohibition the A.T.F. will have to enforce. To help set gun policy, he has charged the A.T.F. with undertaking the first comprehensive federal survey of weapons-trafficking patterns since 2000. And to lead the bureau into the future, Mr. Biden has nominated a fiery former A.T.F. agent and gun-control activist, David Chipman.

First, though, the bureau will have to overcome its past. In the 48 years since its mission shifted primarily to firearms enforcement, it has been weakened by relentless assaults from the N.R.A. that have, in the view of many, made the A.T.F. appear to be an agency engineered to fail.

At the N.R.A.’s instigation, Congress has limited the bureau’s budget. It has imposed crippling restrictions on the collection and use of gun-ownership data, including a ban on requiring basic inventories of weapons from gun dealers. It has limited unannounced inspections of gun dealers. Fifteen years ago, the N.R.A. successfully lobbied to make the director’s appointment subject to Senate confirmation — and has subsequently helped block all but one nominee from taking office.

The Times neglects to mention that one of the reasons why the ATF has had a difficult time getting a permanent director confirmed is because Democrats have offered up some candidates that simply couldn’t pass muster with a majority of the U.S. Senate. In 2010, for instance, Barack Obama nominated ATF agent Andrew Traver as permanent director, but his nomination never received a vote on the Senate floor because a number of senators had voiced their concerns over Traver’s anti-gun attitudes.

Obama’s second nominee, B. Todd Jones, was ultimately confirmed by the Senate but remained in the job for less than two years before retiring in 2015 and taking a job with the NFL.

Despite Traver’s anti-gun rhetoric scuttling his chances at the top job, the Biden administration has also nominated a former agent with deep ties to the gun control movement. David Chipman spent 25 years at the ATF, but has also spent nearly a decade working for gun control groups like Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Giffords. According to the Times, Chipman may not have the votes to be confirmed either, though the paper says he does have the backing of one of the most important members of the Senate these days.

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Biden’s Plan to Enact Gun Control and the Dangers of David Chipman

With Joe Biden’s executive actions now public and the President nominating rabid anti-gunner David Chipman for the top job at the ATF, many gun owners wonder what is next.

The targeting of unfinished firearms kits and pistol braces, along with an attempt to place Chipman in the ATF Director’s chair, hints at Giffords playing a significant role in the Biden administration’s gun policy. The former ATF agent was the Senior Advisor at Giffords, and long have pushed to eliminate the items Biden is trying to ban through regulation. In fact, in September of 2018, Chipman wrote what could be described as a road map for gun control.

Looking at this document, we can see what is coming down the road and Chipman’s nonsensical reasoning. It also highlights why we need all hands on deck to stop him from being confirmed. A David Chipman ATF is the greatest real danger the Second Amendment has ever faced. Republicans are partially responsible for the peril we are in as well. The lack of push back on the bump stock ban embolden Chipman and his elk. The ATF will use the reclassification of bump stocks as a template to reclassify other items.

We can see the ATF try to ban these items through reclassification with Chipman at the helm.

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Biden’s ATF Pick Is Conspiracy Nut ‘Unhinged From Reality’

Fox News host Tucker Carlson dismantled President Joe Biden over his serial false statements regarding gun crime in America during a Rose Garden speech Thursday in which he announced several new executive actions against firearms.

But Carlson saved some of his most venomous criticism for the man Biden has picked to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, David Chipman, whom the host described as “a conspiracy nut” and exactly the wrong person to run that particular agency.

Chipman, Carlson noted, made the comments last year regarding the federal government’s 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, which was eventually burned to the ground due to actions taken by the FBI and ATF. Chipman claimed that Davidians used .50 caliber rifles to shoot down two FBI helicopters, which is absolutely untrue.

“At Waco, cult members used 2 .50 caliber Barretts to shoot down two Texas Air National Guard helicopters. Point, it is true we are fortunate they are not used in crime more often,” Chipman stated in response to a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event.

Davidians did reportedly shot at and damage three government helicopters, but none of them were shot down and no federal agents were hurt.

Turning to the president’s newest anti-gun executive actions, “to enforce them, Joe Biden has nominated a man who is unhinged from reality: David Chipman,” Carlson said on his show on Thursday.

“Who is David Chipman? Well, he is a conspiracy nut for one thing.”

“In 1993, the ATF killed dozens of innocent children and at least one pregnant woman for no obvious reason. It’s one of the worst things that federal agents have ever done in this country,” the Fox News host said, noting that four ATF agents were killed along with 82 Branch Davidians.

“If you’re taking over the ATF, maybe you could apologize for that. But no, David Chipman lied about it and then attacked the dead.”

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The ATF is Changing Gun Definitions, Turning Legal Gun Owners Into Felons, Literally Overnight

What if government agents could, by declaration, make you into a criminal? What if, without legislative change, bureaucrats could decide that what was legal yesterday is a felony today? What if we were governed not by law, but by arbitrary statements telling us what we may or may not do?

Unfortunately, those questions are not merely hypothetical—thanks to recent abuses of power by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), millions of American gun owners are facing them head-on. Even if you hate guns, you should be deeply concerned by the arbitrary power wielded by the ATF against your fellow Americans. If an unchecked executive agency can run roughshod over any of our rights with impunity, all of our rights are in danger.

Recently, the firearms manufacturer Q, LLC shared disturbing news with its customers: the ATF had declared the delightfully-named and popular “Honey Badger” pistol to be a “short-barreled rifle” (SBR). This determination subjects the firearm to special restrictions under the National Firearms Act (NFA). As a consequence of the ATF’s decision, customers who had purchased the Honey Badger have suddenly found themselves in felonious possession of a now-illegal firearm that they had legally acquired and legally owned.

The ATF’s determination is arbitrary. It is inconsistent with both federal law and prior ATF statements. Substantially similar firearms continue to be sold legally, as they have been for years. Instead of explaining what makes the Honey Badger different from those firearms, the ATF vaguely alluded to “objective design features,” offering no further explanation as to what those features are or why they lead the ATF to determine that the Honey Badger is an SBR.

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