Chipman and BATFE  by Tom Reynolds

David Chipman is the worst possible nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE); he is firmly in the corner of gun grabbers and it would be impossible for him to even-handedly administer BATFE.  Apparently, there has been enough political opposition to him that the Democrats are regrouping. 

The best and simplest description of Chipman’s place in the Biden administration was written in the National Review by David Harsanyi, who observed, “We now have an energy secretary who is against affordable energy, a transportation secretary who is against efficient travel, and perhaps soon an ATF director who wants to gut Second Amendment protections.”   

The following is from Ammoland and spells out the status of his nomination:

The Judiciary Committee has delayed voting on the nomination of retired federal agent-turned-gun control advocate David Chipman one week, until Thursday, June 24, and during that time, grassroots Second Amendment activists are expected to be flooding Capitol Hill with messages of opposition.

“Between now and next Thursday,” suggested Jason Ouimet, executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, “(gun owners) ought to be contacting their Senators. They don’t want a partisan person like David Chipman running ATF.”

Ouimet spoke…expressing alarm that a nominee with Chipman’s background would be considered for the job of running the government’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. NRA has opposed the Chipman nomination from the beginning, stating, “Chipman has a long history of gun control advocacy that disqualifies him from leading the agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws.”

“The person who runs ATF ought to be somebody who can put politics aside, work with industry, gun owners and law enforcement,” Ouimet said.  Chipman, however, has worked for the gun prohibition lobby in the years since retiring from the ATF, which is responsible for enforcing the nation’s federal gun control laws.

Quimet expects a solid party-line vote in the Judiciary Committee, which is evenly divided with 11 members from each side of the aisle. It is when, or if, the nomination gets to the full Senate where each vote will hang in the balance, and a tie would be decided by Democrat Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate.

And this, also from Ammoland, which gives a possible reason why the Democrats need to regroup.  Without Kelly’s vote, the Democrats only have 49 for confirmation.

Yesterday, the Arizona state House of Representatives issued a proclamation opposing the nomination of David Chipman to be the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and asking Senator Mark Kelly (of Arizona) to recuse himself from a confirmation vote…Senator Kelly is co-founder of the national anti-gun group that currently employs David Chipman. As such, Chipman cannot be trusted to uphold the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans, and Senator Kelly voting on his confirmation is a conflict of interest.

Obviously, our NY Senators are firmly in the gun grabbers camp, but it doesn’t hurt to show them that they are going too far.  (Neither of them is on the Judiciary Committee but they will have a vote if it comes to the Senate floor.  And, obviously, Schumer has influence.)

Email Schumer

Email Gillibrand

And if you know someone in another state, ask them to contact their Senator.