• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertise With Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Fierce Patriots

Conservative Political News

  • Subscribe

<![CDATA[David Chipman]]>

Confirmation of Biden's gun-banning pick as ATF chief heads to Senate floor

June 16, 2022 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

Joe Biden’s second choice to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is likely to be approved next week, with both Joe Manchin and Angus King approving of Steve Dettelbach’s nomination over the past two weeks. Those nods give former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach at least 50 votes in favor of his confirmation, and Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm him along party lines when the Senate officially takes up his confirmation.

That could happen as early as next week, but the preliminary vote will likely happen this afternoon, after the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked 11-11 earlier today, requiring the Senate to vote on a motion to discharge his nomination from the committee.

“Dettelbach unquestionably deserved bipartisan support, but either way he’s going to move forward,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday morning.

“We need a fully functional, fully staffed ATF in order for that agency to fulfill its mission of keeping our communities safe from gun violence,” he said.

Schumer and company could have had that months ago, but Joe Biden decided to nominate a committed gun control activist to head up the agency, which led to his nomination being pulled over objections by King and Manchin.

Unfortunately for gun owners and the firearms industry, Dettelbach is just as anti-gun as David Chipman, but in part because he doesn’t have the close ties to the gun control lobby that Chipman had, and partly because King and Machin are now willing to “do something” to help their Democratic colleagues chalk up a gun control win, Dettelbach’s confirmation is almost assured at this point.

Dettelbach’s time as a U.S. Attorney is fairly non-controversial. It’s the positions he took in his failed bid to become Ohio’s Attorney General in 2018 that have raised concerns among gun owners and Second Amendment organizations. On the campaign trail he endorsed “universal background checks” and a ban on AR-15s and other modern sporting rifles, but claimed during his confirmation hearing that politics would play no role in his position if confirmed to lead the ATF.

“Politics can play no role in law enforcement. None at all,” he said.

“I worked under Republican administrations, and I worked under Democratic administrations as a federal prosecutor and I have lived that credo and I vow to continue to do it because people need to have confidence that people in law enforcement’s only agenda is to enforce the law – and if you’re at the ATF to catch the bad guys and protect the public,” he said.

“I vow to never let politics in any way influence my action as ATF director,” he added.

Yeah, I suspect that vow will expire the same day he’s confirmed. Joe Biden and his anti-gun allies have specifically been looking for a gun control ideologue to run the ATF, and after Chipman’s failure to launch, Dettelbach was seen as a candidate who didn’t bring as much baggage but still had the same view of guns and gun control.

For his part, Dettelbach has played his cards close to the vest, even when directly questioned about his past support for bans on modern sporting rifles.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas pressed the nominee to define the term assault weapon after noting that during Dettelbach’s 2018 campaign for Ohio attorney general he supported a ban.

“What is an assault weapon – can you define it for me?” Cotton asked.

“When I was a candidate for office I did talk about restrictions on assault weapons. I did not define the term and I haven’t gone through the process of defining that term. That would only be for the Congress if it chose to take that up,” the nominee said.

“I acknowledge that’s a very difficult issue. That is for this body to decide,” he later added.

“I think it’s very telling that you’re nominated to lead the ATF and and you don’t have a definition of assault weapon,” Cotton said. “The point is there is really no such thing as a category of weapons known as assault weapons. There are rifles, there are shotguns, there are pistols, they have properties, they have features, but there is no such thing as a category of assault weapon.”

How can you talk about wanting to ban something that you can’t define? Dettelbach knows exactly what he was referring to when he called for banning “assault weapons”; semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns in calibers larger than, say, .22LR. The cosmetic features don’t really matter to the gun control lobby. Their real definition of assault weapon is simply “a gun I want to ban.”

I would love to be proven wrong about my skepticism towards Dettelbach. In fact, I’m hoping that I have to write an article at some point where I own up to my own mistake in judgement, but at this point I see no reason to believe that Dettelbach will be any better than David Chipman. The two men may have chosen different career paths, but seem to be in lockstep agreement when it comes to the Second Amendment and regulating away the right to keep and bear arms.

Filed Under: <![CDATA[Angus King]]>, <![CDATA[ATF]]>, <![CDATA[David Chipman]]>, <![CDATA[Gun Control]]>, <![CDATA[joe manchin]]>, <![CDATA[Second Amendment]]>, <![CDATA[Steve Dettelbach]]>, <![CDATA[Video]]>, Bearing Arms, News

Texas company sues DOJ over ATF's new “ghost gun” rule

May 11, 2022 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

In what is likely just the first of several lawsuits challenging the legality of the ATF’s new rule on unfinished frames and receivers, which is scheduled to go into effect in August, a Texas company that makes 80% receivers is asserting that the Department of Justice and the ATF are engaged in an “unlawful attempt to unilaterally rewrite federal law and destroy the ability of Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights by privately making firearms.”

Division 80, which is based in Galveston County, has engaged some heavy legal artillery in its suit, including former ATF acting director Michael Sullivan, who argues that the changes the Department of Justice is trying to make should take place via a vote in Congress, not an executive branch rule change.

Sullivan, who lives in Boston, and Austin-based co-counsel Cory Liu, who previously worked as assistant general counsel to Gov. Greg Abbott and as a law clerk to Sen. Ted Cruz, said in a joint statement the aim of this suit is “to prevent the Biden Administration from politically weaponizing the ATF and adopting an unlawful (regulation, known as the) Final Rule without Congress’s approval.” The company thinks the new regulation “unlawfully seeks to put law-abiding American companies like Division 80 out of business.”

… The lawsuit highlights what the company sees as the White House’s backdoor solution to this policy conundrum — businesses like Division 80 were forced by the Biden’s Justice Department and ATF to heed a revised federal regulation that limits their rights. The company says this new rule “unlawfully rewrites federal law and repudiates ATF’s longstanding legal position on receiver blanks.”

Businesses were forced to comply with the new mandate that the former classifications of these parts are no longer “valid or authoritative,” despite the fact that no law prevents them from operating, the company says.

“Frustrated with the constitutional process of bicameralism and presentment, President Biden politically pressured (the Justice Department and ATF) to take unilateral executive action to accomplish his failed policy agenda,” the suit says.

You can read a copy of the complaint here, but the gist of the argument is pretty simple; DOJ and ATF are acting beyond their legal purview because, with the votes not there in Congress, that’s the only way that the Biden administration can implement its anti-Second Amendment agenda. The lawsuit notes that for decades the ATF had determined that only completed frames and receivers were considered “firearms” under the language of the Gun Control Act of 1968, but the new rule upended that determination by suddenly declaring that if an incomplete frame or receiver is “designed to or may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted” into a completed frame or receiver then it should be treated like one from the get-go. As the lawsuit points out, this doesn’t make any sense at all, and completely undercuts the position the agency has taken for many years.

If item A can readily be made into item B, it is by definition not yet item B. The Final Rule abuses the English language in order to expand ATF’s regulatory jurisdiction to cover materials that can “readily” be made into regulated products. This attempt to drastically expand ATF’s regulatory jurisdiction is in excess of ATF’s statutory authority.

In classification determinations issued to manufacturers, ATF has stated that receiver blanks do not meet the definition of a regulated “firearm” under federal law. ATF has defended these classification determinations in litigation brought by gun-control activists. But the Final Rule expressly repudiates ATF’s prior classification determinations:

Prior determinations by the Director that a partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional frame or receiver, including a parts kit, was not, or did not include, a “firearm frame or receiver” under § 478.11, or “frame or receiver” under § 479.11, as those terms were defined prior to April 26, 2022, shall not continue to be valid or authoritative after that date. Such determinations shall include those in which the Director determined that the item or parts kit had not yet reached a stage of manufacture to be, or include, a “firearm frame or receiver” under § 478.11, or “frame or receiver” under § 479.11, as those terms were defined prior to [April 26, 2022].

ATF’s complete reversal of its legal position is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.

The phrases “partially complete,” “may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted to function as a frame or receiver,” and “stage of manufacture where it is clearly identifiable as an unfinished component part of a weapon” are so vague as to make it impossible for manufacturers, distributors, and customers to understand which product designs are regulated by the Final Rule and which are not. Among other things, this creates extreme uncertainty and will cause prolific waste in determining which facets of the firearms manufacturing supply chain require a federal firearms license. This uncertainty will force companies involved in the supply chain for manufacturing firearms to withdraw from the industry.

Which is exactly the intention of the ATF’s new rule, frankly. In fact, the more uncertainty the better as far as the Biden administration is concerned. Clear bright lines are easy to follow. Vague and fuzzy rules, by their very nature, have a lot of wiggle room for interpretation, and the ATF’s new rule is chock full of vague language that can be interpreted differently on a case by case basis, especially when (quoting from the lawsuit here) it’s “combined with the Final Rule’s authorization of the ATF Director to ‘consider any associated templates, jigs, molds, equipment, tools, instructions, guides, or marketing materials,’”, which the suit argues  “effectively delegate to the ATF Director unbounded, unconstitutional discretion to determine by diktat which products fall within ATF’s jurisdiction.”

As I’ve said before, the Biden administration and their anti-gun allies are trying to weaponize the ATF into a gun control group with law enforcement powers. Second Amendment supporters have already derailed one major component of that campaign by defeating the nomination of gun control lobbyist David Chipman as permanent director of the ATF, and hopefully this lawsuit (and the others that are sure to follow) will derail the administration’s latest attempt to do an end run around the Constitution to attack our Second Amendment rights.

Filed Under: <![CDATA[ATF lawsuit]]>, <![CDATA[ATF]]>, <![CDATA[David Chipman]]>, <![CDATA[Division 80]]>, <![CDATA[frames and receivers]]>, <![CDATA[ghost gun]]>, <![CDATA[Gun Control]]>, <![CDATA[Joe Biden]]>, <![CDATA[Michael Sullivan]]>, <![CDATA[Video]]>, Bearing Arms, News

Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch endorse Biden's ATF nominee

May 5, 2022 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

The push to confirm anti-gun politician and former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach as permanent director of the ATF is in full effect, though I doubt that the latest round of endorsements is going to have much of an impact on the ultimate outcome of his nomination. Are any fence-sitters or opponents of Dettelbach really going to be swayed by learning that the man in charge of the Department of Justice during the ATF’s gunwalking scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious believes Dettelbach is the right man for the job?

More than 140 former Justice Department officials, including two past attorneys general, are throwing their support behind President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The ex-officials, who worked for both Democratic and Republican presidents, are urging congressional leaders to quickly confirm Steve Dettelbach to the post. Their endorsement comes on the heels of support from several law enforcement organizations, including the Major County Sheriffs of America.

The letter — to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa — is signed by Holder and Lynch, along with several other prominent former Justice Department officials. Those others include former deputy attorneys general Rod Rosenstein, Sally Yates and James Cole, along with former Sen. Doug Jones.

The ex-officials emphasized Dettelbach’s work as a career prosecutor who earned votes from both Democrats and Republicans for his confirmation as U.S. attorney. The signers said he has “conducted himself with the highest level of integrity and character.”

“Throughout his exceptional career, Steve has also been recognized for being inclusive and even-handed in his approach to law enforcement,” the letter states. “He also understands that there can be no room for partisanship or divisiveness among those who are vested with the sacred mission of fighting crime and defending the rule of law.”

Well, if a noted non-partisan like Eric Holder says Dettelbach isn’t going to be divisive, it must be true, right?

The problem with Dettelbach isn’t the time he spent as a U.S. Attorney. It’s the fact that as a candidate for Attorney General in Ohio in 2018, Dettelbach made it clear that there’s no difference between his views on gun control (and gun owners) and David Chipman’s. Both are in favor of all kinds of new gun control laws aimed at law-abiding Americans, including banning the most commonly-sold rifle in the country and creating a backdoor gun registry through a universal background check law. The only real difference between the two men is that Chipman got (and still gets) paychecks from a gun control group, while Dettelbach got endorsements.

But if Chipman’s anti-gun advocacy was enough to scuttle his nomination, the same should be true for Dettelbach. I’m not convinced that’s going to be the case, but if a recent report by POLITICO is true, Dettelbach has not yet secured the support of several key Democrats.

The agency needs a head with the permanence of Senate approval to have the best chance at implementing Biden’s guns agenda. With little hope for bipartisan compromise on the issue in a 50-50 Senate, particularly as the midterm elections approach, Democrats are increasingly imploring the White House to take unilateral action on gun control on a smaller scale than Congress has envisioned in previous attempts at a legislative deal.

But a number of key Senate Democratic caucus members are noncommittal on Dettelbach, who supported an assault weapons ban and universal background checks during his failed bid for attorney general of Ohio in 2018. That includes those who privately opposed or didn’t backBiden’s last nominee: Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). All three are set to speak or meet with Dettelbach in the coming weeks, critical conversations that will determine his fate on the Senate floor.

… Manchin confirmed he had a “problem” with Chipman’s nomination and said of the ATF job: “Some people inside the system that I heard were really good. But you know, you have to get someone who understands the people on the front line, what we are asking ATF members to do.”

King said he’s reviewing Dettelbach’s record, and Tester plans to press the nominee on his opposition to assault weapons and whether that extends to other firearms.

“He’s opposed to assault weapons, and I’m going to ask him: How did he formulate that idea, why? Does it have any impact on other guns? Are there other things we need to know about him that he would be opposed to?” Tester said.

I suspect that some of this is political theater, especially on the part of Jon Tester, but as I said, if King and Machin (and supposedly Tester as well) were opposed to Chipman’s nomination, there’s no reason why they should give Dettelbach the nod instead. Joe Biden could have nominated a career professional, but that’s not who the gun control lobby wants in charge of the ATF. They view this as their golden opportunity to put one of their own in charge of the agency that regulates the firearms industry, and if they can’t get David Chipman, they’ll be more that satisfied if their second-stringer ends up with the job.

Filed Under: <![CDATA[ATF]]>, <![CDATA[David Chipman]]>, <![CDATA[Eric Holder]]>, <![CDATA[Everytown for Gun Safety]]>, <![CDATA[Giffords]]>, <![CDATA[Gun Control]]>, <![CDATA[Joe Biden]]>, <![CDATA[loretta lynch]]>, <![CDATA[Steve Dettelbach]]>, <![CDATA[Video]]>, Bearing Arms, News

Primary Sidebar

The One Kind of ‘Diversity’ That University Officials Don’t Want

July 1, 2022 | George Leef | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about The One Kind of ‘Diversity’ That University Officials Don’t Want

Karine Jean-Pierre Is Collapsing and Even Her Allies Are Starting to Notice

July 1, 2022 | Bonchie | Leave a Comment

Did you know that Karine Jean-Pierre is the first openly gay, black, immigrant White House Press Secretary in history? You’d be hard-pressed not to … Read More... about Karine Jean-Pierre Is Collapsing and Even Her Allies Are Starting to Notice

Tory MP Quits Deputy Whip Role Amid Claims of Groping Two Men

July 1, 2022 | Kurt Zindulka | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Tory MP Quits Deputy Whip Role Amid Claims of Groping Two Men

WFB, BNL, MLB, and More

July 1, 2022 | Jay Nordlinger | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about WFB, BNL, MLB, and More

French Judges To Decide Whether Trans-Men Eligible For Artificial Insemination

July 1, 2022 | Chris Tomlinson | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about French Judges To Decide Whether Trans-Men Eligible For Artificial Insemination

Sign Up For The Fierce Patriot Newsletter

Follow on Instagram

Starving the Planet to Save It?

July 1, 2022 | Andrew Stuttaford | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Starving the Planet to Save It?

Larry Arnn Is Right about Education Majors

July 1, 2022 | Kevin D. Williamson | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Larry Arnn Is Right about Education Majors

War Transforms the State

July 1, 2022 | Michael Brendan Dougherty | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about War Transforms the State

Canadian Police Describe Person with Full Beard as 'Missing Woman'

July 1, 2022 | Jack Montgomery | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Canadian Police Describe Person with Full Beard as 'Missing Woman'

Cuellar: Asylum Seekers Should Remain in Mexico, Only 10-12% Who Get Asylum Should Be Allowed in

July 1, 2022 | Ian Hanchett | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Cuellar: Asylum Seekers Should Remain in Mexico, Only 10-12% Who Get Asylum Should Be Allowed in

Woke Bank Tells Customers to Leave If They Don't Like Pronoun Badges

July 1, 2022 | Kurt Zindulka | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Woke Bank Tells Customers to Leave If They Don't Like Pronoun Badges

Blue State Blues: America Is Being Governed Like a Third World Country

July 1, 2022 | Joel B. Pollak | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Blue State Blues: America Is Being Governed Like a Third World Country

Brazil's Bolsonaro Pledges Guns Laws Similar to U.S. if Reelected

June 30, 2022 | Jeff Poor | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Brazil's Bolsonaro Pledges Guns Laws Similar to U.S. if Reelected

Rex Chapman Likens Clarence Thomas to a 'Black White Supremacist', Repeats Racist Stereotype About Blacks and Basketball

June 30, 2022 | Dylan Gwinn | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about Rex Chapman Likens Clarence Thomas to a 'Black White Supremacist', Repeats Racist Stereotype About Blacks and Basketball

German Chancellor: We're Now Making 'Real Investments' in 'Pipelines'

June 30, 2022 | Ian Hanchett | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about German Chancellor: We're Now Making 'Real Investments' in 'Pipelines'

In the Atmosphere of Identity, the Sky's the Limit: Swoon to the Sweet Song of 'Bird Gender'

June 30, 2022 | Alex Parker | Leave a Comment

To those who think neo-pronouns are for the birds: You’re actually right for once. As delivered by … Read More... about In the Atmosphere of Identity, the Sky's the Limit: Swoon to the Sweet Song of 'Bird Gender'

WH's National Economic Council Director Deese: Paying High Gas Prices 'About the Future of the Liberal World Order'

June 30, 2022 | Jeff Poor | Leave a Comment

… Read More... about WH's National Economic Council Director Deese: Paying High Gas Prices 'About the Future of the Liberal World Order'

Copyright © 2022 — FiercePatriots.com • All rights reserved. • Privacy Policy • Terms of Use • Sitemap