House Republicans are opposing President Biden’s nomination of David Chipman as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Chipman is a former federal agent and adviser at the gun control group Giffords. He has been called a “longtime gun-control activist and lobbyist” and that his confirmation would jeopardize the constitutional rights for generations of American gun owners to come.
House Republican Study Committee Chair Jim Banks and 68 other GOP members wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to talk about Chipman’s record throughout the years and argue how his confirmation would threaten the landscape of firearm ownership.
The letter talks about many raised concerns regarding Chipman’s nomination, including many of his “historical falsehoods.” He has made a series of controversial and partisan remarks on social media over the years related to gun reform and weapon regulation.
In a September 2019 Reddit forum, Chipman falsely claimed that Branch Davidian sect members had shot down two helicopters during the Waco Massacre. “At Waco, cult members used 2 .50 caliber Barretts to shoot down two Texas Air National Guard helicopters. It is true we are fortunate they are not used in crime more often,” he wrote.
It has been verified in a House report that the members shot at the helicopters, but the vessels themselves did not go down. The report reads that all three helicopters sustained damage from weapons fired, but that none of the National Guard crews or ATF aboard were injured. Chipman, however, was corrected by other Reddit users but did not opt to edit or remove the statement himself.
The letter also cited a specific example from October 2018 when Chipman argued in favor of subjecting all AR-15’s and semi-automatic rifles to regulation under the National Firearms Act. In the letter, GOP lawmakers wrote that Chipman knows all too well that such action would effectively ban the most popular rifle in America.
Chipman has also published multiple partisan posts regarding gun control, including an AR-15 commercial that he shared and compared to individuals who commit mass shootings. He wrote that advertising a rifle as unleashing an ‘orchestra of metal and hellfire’ is marketing for mass shooters.
“If confirmed, David Chipman would use every tool at his disposal to attack American gun owners and we respectfully ask you to oppose any and all action that would advance his confirmation in the Senate,” the letter reads.
President Biden has been rolling out executive orders regarding gun control, as well as a call to stop ghost gun kits and propose a rule on braces used for handguns. He has also talked about supporting assault weapon bans and repealing a law that prevents gun manufacturers from being sued for crimes people have committed. He even shared remarks earlier last month that “no amendment to the Constitution is absolute.”
Until Democrats realize that criminal activity is not controlled by law, they’ll just keep introducing legislation that has no effect on gun violence. The government passes laws that criminals are not expected to follow, but law-abiding citizens are. The radical left is all about giving criminals more rights than law-abiding citizens and attempting to limit the rights that citizens have to protect themselves and their families.
To add to everything else, David Chipman is a gun owner himself.
