<![CDATA[David Chipman]]>

Activist Claims Lack Of Media Coverage Doomed Chipman Nomination

September 22, 2021 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

There’s been a flood of columns and op-eds from the gun control crowd since David Chipman’s nomination to head up the ATF flamed out a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve ignored writing about most of them since they largely say the same thing; the darn gun lobby (which consists solely of the NRA and the firearms industry, according to the anti-gun commentators) is still too powerful and must be brought to heel.

That’s basically the gist of Eleanor Clift’s new piece at the Daily Beast, but in the course of her anti-NRA screed, she accidentally hit on one of the major factors behind Chipman’s defeat, and that is definitely worth pointing out.

Knocking off another ATF nominee is the kind of fight the NRA loves, said Jim Kessler, who cut his teeth on Capitol Hill working on the assault weapons ban in the ’90s.
“The ATF director is on page 12 (of the newspaper) if he’s on any page at all,” Kessler continued. “It’s their kind of fight, where they’re the only one really paying attention.” Most Americans aren’t focused on who will lead the ATF, and when President Biden withdrew his nomination of former ATF agent David Chipman earlier this month, it received scant notice even though it was only the second time Biden pulled a Senate-confirmable appointee. (The other was Neera Tanden for the OMB.)

Now, I think it’s nonsense for Kessler to claim that the media wasn’t paying much attention to the Chipman nomination. CNN regularly reported on the status of Chipman’s nomination throughout the summer, as did the Washington Post, the New York Times, and MSNBC. There was plenty of coverage of the Chipman nomination, and the much of it downplayed Chipman’s years working as a paid gun control lobbyist. The press attention was there. It just didn’t translate into a lot of support for the candidate.

What Kessler is really talking about is the fact that the grassroots activism of Second Amendment supporters dwarfed the activism of the gun control lobby. Moms Demand Action and Everytown supposedly have millions of members, just like the NRA, and God knows the gun control lobby has far more money to spend promoting their agenda, thanks to the deep pockets of Big Daddy Bloomberg. In theory, the cash advantage and the millions of gun control supporters connected through groups like Everytown and Giffords should have pushed Chipman’s nomination over the finish line. Instead, because the gun control lobby didn’t have a plan to deal with the wave of opposition in red states with blue senators like Maine and West Virginia, they suffered an embarrassing defeat. Even now, after Chipman’s defeat, the gun control lobby is still having a difficult time dealing with reality.

“No confirmed director makes it harder to do these things, but there’s still a lot the ATF can do,” said Zack DiGregorio, EveryTown’s national press secretary. “The gun lobby can keep pushing disinformation all day long, but the NRA is a shell of its former self, and the country still strongly supports gun safety. It’s really hard to fight a 90-10 issue. One of the only places where background checks are controversial is the United States Senate.”

Not really. In fact, in 2016 voters in Maine headed to the polls and rejected a universal background check measure that had been placed on the ballot by gun control groups. Backers of the proposed gun control law outspent opponents 6-to-1, but when the votes were tallied the referendum went down to defeat with 52% of voters rejecting the measure. Five years later the state’s independent senator Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, refused to support Chipman’s nomination. I’d say there’s a connection between those two events, and in both cases there were simply more people fighting for their rights than those fighting to take them away.

Gun Control Activists Still Spinning Chipman's Defeat

September 17, 2021 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

It’s been over a week since the Biden administration reluctantly cut loose David Chipman, the gun control activist and former ATF agent who Biden had nominated to head up the agency where he once served, and the gun control lobby is still having a hard time coming to terms with their defeat.

Griffin Dix, who helps run the Oakland chapter of Brady, complains in a new column that Chipman would have been confirmed if it weren’t for the “enduring corrupt power of the U.S. gun lobby.”

To block Chipman’s nomination, Donald Trump Jr. and the corporate gun lobby spent millions on TV, radio and internet disinformation campaigns attacking Chipman and his family.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., called him “an anti-Second Amendment, gun-grabbing radical that should not lead the agency that regulates firearms.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agreed: “Absurd that a vocal opponent of Americans’ constitutional rights was ever picked to run ATF.”
This is nonsense. The real point of opposing Chipman’s nomination was not to protect the Second Amendment, but to protect gun trafficking. It was to make sure the gun industry can sell as many guns as possible, even to dangerous “prohibited persons” who cannot legally purchase them.

Talk about nonsense. Does Griffin really believe that the millions of gun owners who objected to the idea of installing a gun control activist as top dog at ATF did so because they want to protect firearms trafficking? Of course not. He just can’t admit that there’s more passion on the part of Second Amendment activists than there is to be found among the “gunsense” crowd, particularly in states like Maine, West Virginia, and Montana. There was no way that Chipman was going to get confirmed without the support of red state Democrats, and as it turns out those Democrats like Joe Manchin and Jon Tester (along with independent Angus King of Maine) were hearing a lot more from gun owners opposing Chipman’s nomination than gun control activists demanding his confirmation.

Soon you’ll hear the same senators who would not confirm Chipman complain about crime being rampant in our streets and cities. But when they had a chance to do something about it, they didn’t.

This is gobsmackingly stupid. We saw a steady decline in violent crime between 2005 and 2019, and only had a permanent director of the ATF for a couple of those years. The idea that David Chipman was needed at ATF to reduce crime is laughable. It’s the gun control lobby that needed him there; not to go after violent criminals, but to target the firearms industry and responsible gun owners.

Chipman was well-qualified for the job. He served 25 years as an ATF special agent, and received a prestigious award from the U.S. Department of Justice for his contribution to community partnerships around public safety. But all of the Republican senators — and a few Democratic ones from rural states — opposed him.

The fact that even now roups like Brady are downplaying Chipman’s role as a paid gun control lobbyist says a lot about why Chipman was defeated in the first place. They simply couldn’t be honest about who Chipman was and his contempt and hostility towards Second Amendment activists and the firearms industry, not to mention his alleged racist remarks while serving in the Detroit ATF field office. Instead, activists like Griffith portrayed Chipman as the consummate professional; a guy who wasn’t interested in advancing the gun control lobby’s agenda, but someone who’d simply follow the lead of Congress when it came to enforcing our nation’s gun laws.

It’s such an absurd argument that it was never going to fly in the states where the nomination was going to be the most problematic, and frankly, the gun control lobby did a terrible job of countering the argument that an activist like Chipman wasn’t an acceptable or appropriate choice to head up the ATF. I’m of the belief that the anti-gun activists who pressured Joe Biden to name Chipman as his choice to run the agency convinced themselves that the nomination could be rammed through on a party-line vote before they ever spoke to Joe Manchin or Angus King. Griffith can complain all he wants about the power of the gun lobby, but what he and other gun control activists are really angry about is the fact that groups like Brady, Giffords, and Everytown for Gun Safety don’t appear to be the slightest bit effective at persuading undecided senators to go along with their agenda.

Editorial: Chipman Defeat A Gun Lobby Win

September 14, 2021 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

According to some, there don’t appear to be any really pro-Second Amendment lawmakers. They’re all working at the behest of the nebulous “gun lobby.” They’re not thinking for themselves or anything of the sort, they’re just doing it because of powerful special interests.

Those special interests, it should be noted, are totally and completely different than groups like Brady, Giffords, Everytown for Gun Sense in America, and so on. No, those special interests–the gun control lobby–are totally different.

But that brings us to the nomination of David Chipman for director of the ATF. As you no doubt know by now, Chipman’s nomination was yanked because, frankly, it wasn’t going anywhere.

And, according to the editors of the New York Daily News, that’s a win for the “gun lobby.”

Of course the pro-gun-regulation activist and former ATF agent President Joe Biden nominated to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives couldn’t pass Senate muster.
What do you expect, a critic of Big Tech to take over the Federal Trade Commission? A champion of investor protections to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission? A lifelong advocate for safer roads and skies to sit atop the National Transportation Safety Board? Someone with a strong record of safeguarding our air, water and climate to lead the Environmental Protection Agency?
Those questions are facetious; we fortunately have all of those officials in place, among many other regulators who’ve proven they have the gumption to take on entrenched interests to protect the public interest.
Guns stand alone. After the firearm industry howled at the top of its lungs and Republicans and some pro-gun Democrats and independents (we see you, Joe Manchin and Jon Tester and Angus King) followed their lead, Biden last week pulled David Chipman’s nomination.

They don’t get to complain.

I’m sorry, they don’t.

The left went nuts when Betsy DeVos, a well-known advocate for school choice, was tapped to run the Department of Education under President Trump.

When it’s all said and done, both sides are going to oppose those whose values differ significantly from their own to head various agencies. David Chipman doesn’t get special treatment, especially when the ATF is tasked with the interpretation of so many gun laws. DeVos could do nothing except what the law permitted. Chipman could have banned components with the stroke of a pen.

Oh, and yeah, the firearm industry howled. Just like the liquor industry would have howled if Biden had nominated a prohibitionist to head the agency. Even if he only wanted to ban hard liquor but leave beer and wine, it would have still been a huge issue for them. As it should be.

It’s like the editorial board thinks people are elected solely to advance the board’s agenda. They forget that Joe Manchin is a Democrat representing a very, very red state. The same is true for Jon Tester. While Angus King is from Maine and that’s a blue state, it’s a blue state known for its love of the Second Amendment. I mean, how many blue states do you know of with constitutional carry?

All three are beholden not to the party or of an editorial board that’s can’t even vote for them, but the people of their states. Had any of the three backed Chipman, it’s entirely possible they’d be voted out of office and replace with someone who would toe the line as the voters demand.

Couple that with the fact that 50 percent of the Senate is Republican and their voters tend to demand support for the Second Amendment as well.

But at least the editorial board can blame the gun lobby. That’s always fun.

What they forget is that the “gun lobby” represents millions of hardworking, law-abiding American gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. It represents people, and that’s who ultimately worked to scuttle Chipman’s nomination. And we’re damn proud to have done so, too.

WaPo Editors Ignore Realities Of Chipman's Defeat

September 13, 2021 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

If there was any doubt that the demise of David Chipman’s nomination as permanent director of the ATF has gun control activists in a rage, look no further than the editorial pages of the Washington Post, where the editors uncorked a torrent of misinformation and vitriol aimed at those it believes responsible for Chipman’s defeat; the “the gun lobbyists who attacked the nominee, showing how morally off-kilter, yet enduringly powerful, the lobby remains.”

To be fair, the paper’s editors also try to shame red-state Democrats like Joe Manchin and Angus King (an independent who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate), saying they “lacked the courage” to stand up to “the gun lobby.” The problem with that argument is that according to a poll conducted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a majority of respondents in both Maine and West Virginia were opposed to Chipman’s nomination. It wasn’t cowardice that led to Manchin and King rejecting Chipman, but a desire to not stray too far from the wishes of voters. In fact, who’s to say that it wasn’t an act of political courage for these Democrats to reject Chipman, knowing that the national party and its erstwhile allies in the media were going to slam them for their decision?

The Post editorial absurdly ignores the reporting of The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski, which revealed several allegations of racial impropriety on the part of Chipman, including a comment he made about the number of Black agents on a promotions list. Instead, the paper claims that “with a weak substantive case against Mr. Chipman, his critics objected most strongly to his attitude.”

He has emphasized that people who buy guns for protection might put themselves in more danger if they do not store them safely and seek proper training, advising new gun owners to “hide it behind the cans of tuna and beef jerky that you’ve stored in the cabinet.” He explained that a disturbing number of people have bought AR-15 rifles for “the same reason Americans might want a muscle car or enjoy a muscle car: It’s American-made, it has outsized power.” He attacked the National Rifle Association for its lobbying against measures that would make the country’s gun-saturated society safer. These and other comments, his opponents argued, revealed contempt for gun owners — even though Mr. Chipman himself owns a gun.
It should not be disqualifying for a public servant to acknowledge the realities of gun violence in the United States, which is unique among advanced nations in tolerating such carnage. Nor should wanting to take popular, small steps toward curbing the flow of guns that serve no legitimate civilian purpose.

While Chipman’s alleged racist remarks certainly didn’t help his cause, what ultimately doomed his nomination was the fact that he’s worked as a paid gun control lobbyist for most of the past decade (at least when he wasn’t hawking a product that’s alleged to lead to overpolicing in minority neighborhoods) and displayed an outright hostility towards gun owners. Take Chipman’s snarky comment about hiding their guns behind the “cans of tuna and beef jerky.” The Washington Post seems to think that was actual advice, as opposed to sarcastic scoffing at the millions of Americans who purchased a firearm for the first time in their lives last year.

As for the Post‘s assertion that Chipman can’t really be anti-gun because he’s a gun owner himself, I’d like to introduce the editors to a concept called “hypocrisy.” Who cares if Chipman owns a gun? It’s the fact that he wants to criminalize millions of other gun owners by declaring their lawfully-purchased firearms to be illegal or restricted items that’s more important.

Chipman wasn’t disqualified because he “acknowledged the realities of gun violence in the United States.” He was disqualified because he blames legal gun owners and the firearms industry for the actions of criminals, because of his longtime advocacy on behalf of the gun control lobby, and because of the concerns within the ATF itself over the political weaponizing of the agency if he’d been confirmed. The Washington Post editors may be hot and bothered by the gun control lobby’s defeat, but the fact that they still can’t come clean about Chipman’s baggage and disqualifying factors speaks volumes about what an awful idea it was to nominate him in the first place.

Chipman Just Latest In Gun Control Defeats For Biden

September 13, 2021 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

President Joe Biden ran as one of the most anti-Second Amendment candidates in history. Sure, there were others in the race who focused on gun control, but Biden pretty much agreed with them on the issue and he made it through to the general election. It was clearly on the agenda.

With most of the year behind us, Biden is reeling from having to withdraw the nomination of David Chipman, but that’s far from the only anti-Second Amendment move he’s made that’s seeming gone down in flames.

President Biden’s decision to pull David Chipman as his nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is a high-profile victory for pro-gun groups and a defeat for gun control advocates in what will likely be this year’s most consequential gun debate.
The withdrawal shows that even under Democratic control of Congress and the White House, efforts to tighten restrictions on guns face an uphill climb.
Chipman’s nomination fell not just because of opposition from Republicans, but also moderate Democrats.
Biden pulled Chipman’s nomination after Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, privately said he wouldn’t support him. Democrats had no room for defections in the 50-50 Senate, and Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also declined to endorse Chipman.
It’s just the latest defeat for gun control advocates.
Senate Democrats earlier this year failed to round up enough votes for a House-passed bill to expand background checks on gun sales, leaving gun control advocates with little to look forward to this Congress.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Biden will announce a new ATF nominee “at an appropriate time.”
But gun control groups reacting to Chipman’s withdrawal weren’t hiding their disappointment.
“The Senate had the opportunity to confirm a supremely qualified and dedicated public servant as ATF director. Instead, the gun lobby’s campaign of baseless conspiracy theories and outright lies succeeded in blocking him,” Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler said in a statement.

First, Chipman wasn’t “supremely qualified.” He lacked significant leadership experience during his time at the ATF, for example. What Ambler meant to say was that Chipman had the right opinions for him.

As for “conspiracy theories and outright lies,” they’re referring to a number of allegations, including some that suggested Chipman made racially insensitive remarks about black agents at the ATF. These were supposedly investigated at the time, but since his personnel record was never released to Congress–something that, in theory, should have cleared all this up if the allegations were false–we’re left to wonder.

Of course, the fact that Chipman didn’t ask for those records to be released to Congress after the allegations surfaced tells us that there was likely something in there he didn’t want to get out. Since Stephen Gutowski over at The Reload had multiple sources saying as much, I have no reason to doubt the allegations as they stand.

But, as noted, that’s just the latest setback for the gun control crowd. This despite ultimately having an effective majority in both chambers of Congress and the White House.

For some, this is a sign that our system is broken, but people forget that our Founding Fathers were distrustful of government and for good reason. They wanted to make it fairly difficult for laws to be created as a way to try and prevent tyranny from taking hold. Little did they know that a couple of hundred years later, people would be screaming for it.

This is where we are now, but thankfully there are mechanisms in place that keep Democrats in Congress from running completely roughshod over our rights.