Tag: gun grabbers

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.

Keep reading

NJ Gov. Phil Murphy Pushes Ammo Purchase Database, .50 Caliber Rifle Ban

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is fighting gun crime in his state by calling for a database of ammunition purchasers and banning .50 caliber rifles.

ABC7 notes that Murphy also wants to require “gun safety training” as part of the process for obtaining a firearm ID card, enact gun storage obligations, mandate registration of out-of-state firearms, and relaunch the “smart gun commission” and a microstamping requirement, among other things.

Murphy’s ideas are already enacted–and failing–in other states.

For example, California already has ammunition gun control, yet South Los Angeles witnessed a 742 percent spike in shooting victims during the first 16 days alone of 2021. California also has a microstamping requirement and firearm registration.

Keep reading

Democrats Introduce Ban on Sale, Possession of Firearm Suppressors

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced legislation on Wednesday to ban the sale and possession of firearm suppressors.

His legislation, the Help Empower Americans to Respond (HEAR) Act, is co-sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), among others.

It would ban the importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, and possession of firearm suppressors.

Menendez commented on the legislation, saying:

Gun silencers are dangerous devices with one purpose and one purpose only – to muffle the sound of gunfire from unsuspecting victims. The sound of gunshots is what signals you to run, hide, take cover, call the police and help others save themselves; however, this is nearly impossible when a gun silencer is used. That is why we must pass the HEAR Act, commonsense legislation that will prevent armed assailants from using these deadly devices to make it easier to shoot and kill another person.

Sen. Feinstein also commented: “Gun silencers and suppressors are dangerous and don’t belong in our communities. They hide the sound of gunfire from potential victims and law enforcement. Removing them will save lives.”

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

PolitiFact: Joe Biden’s Gun Claims ‘Mostly False’

PolitiFact weighed the background check gun control claims President Joe Biden made Thursday and labeled them “mostly false.”

During the gun control push, Biden said, “Most people don’t know: If you walk into a store and you buy a gun, you have a background check. But you go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want and no background check.”

PolitiFact weighed Biden’s claim, noting Biden “exaggerated” and asserted his claim is “mostly false”…

Keep reading

4 Reasons Gun Control Can’t Solve America’s Violence Problem

The gun-control paradigm—the idea that the solution to American violence is more laws restricting guns—is unhelpful.

Gun control doesn’t work. Indeed, any statistical connection between gun policy and violence is tenuous. But even if gun control was effective, it would still be flawed.

Gun control burdens the free exercise of the constitutionally-protected Second Amendment right to bear arms, so it’s subject to compelling legal challenges and is flatly rejected by many Americans. In addition, the enforcement of stringent gun control invariably inflicts heavy burdens upon other civil liberties—especially in poorer communities and among marginalized populations.

Gun control’s coexistence with the values of a free society is, at best, an uneasy one. But it’s even less viable in the particular context of the United States. Consider the 400 million guns already in private circulation, plus the totally irreversible and ever-increasing ease of the self-manufacturing of firearms. No matter what laws are passed, widespread distribution and access to firearms are (and will remain) immutable facts of American life—especially for people who are willing to break laws.

In this context, it’s evident that gun control cannot solve the problem of violence in this country. The following four observations about American violence suggest some promising alternative paradigms.

Keep reading