The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings Wednesday regarding the confirmation of David Chipman, President Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
Chipman is a former ATF agent and spent years as a Gabby Giffords’ gun control affiliate. The Associated Press pointed out Chipman “worked as a senior policy adviser at Giffords,” a law center relied on by gun-control proponents throughout the country.
WBUR reports Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) describes gun violence as an “public health crisis” and supports Chipman’s nomination.
Durbin said: “Gun violence is a public health crisis that requires not just thoughts and prayers, but urgent action. Yet even as tens of thousands of Americans lose their lives to gun violence each year, one of the primary agencies charged with addressing this epidemic has not had a Senate-confirmed Director since 2015.”
Durbin added, “David Chipman has extensive experience working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He will be ready on day one to carry out a mission that every Senator should support: taking common sense, constitutional steps to make our communities safer.”
Nearly 70 House Republicans have warned their Senate colleagues to oppose Chipman’s nomination, describing him as an “enemy of the Second Amendment.”
The NRA is also warning against Chipman’s confirmation, noting he is an “anti-gun lobbyist and gun ban proponent.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Mark Olivia talked to Breitbart News about Chipman on Tuesday, describing him as “a bought and paid-for gun control lobbyist who is still drawing a paycheck from Giffords gun control group.”
Olivia added: “President Biden’s nomination of David Chipman to head the bureau that has regulatory authority over the firearm industry shows this administration is beholden to special interest gun control and is not in step with the record number of Americans choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights. David Chipman is nominated to do one thing and one thing only. That is to destroy the firearm industry as we know it.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.