A U.S. Senate vote on President Joe Biden’s (D) anti-gun nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), David Chipman, is expected in the next few weeks. As the Democratic leadership tries to secure the votes to confirm Chipman, more and more keeps coming out on him.
Now, it turns out that Chipman also has disdain for the First Amendment’s protections of free speech.
In an interview discussing “hate speech” with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) two years ago, Chipman spoke flippantly about the American right to free speech as protected by the First Amendment.
“The frustration is in the United States, the freedom of speech and to say things largely cannot be regulated,” he said during a BBC interview. “But yes, we have to do more to monitor hate speech on the internet.”
In the reference, Chipman was referring to law-enforcement personnel not being able to confiscate American citizens’ firearms based on statements they made—words that might be considered to be “hate speech” by some. Chipman actually thinks police officers should confiscate guns from citizens just because he doesn’t approve of something they said.
It’s likely that Chipman might say that he was taken out of context concerning this remark, just as he has done multiple times in the past when his outlandish statements have become public; this includes what he said during his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. But now Chipman even insinuated that a law allowing the confiscation of guns purely based on what someone might say should be passed.
“The FBI and other federal agencies have a tough job responding to these threats when they don’t currently (emphasis added) have the authority to remove weaponry just because people are saying hateful things,” he said.
Of course, the term “hate speech” can be defined in a wide variety of ways. This is one reason why Chipman’s statement is so dangerous. One person’s discussion of freedom and firearms could, for example, be deemed “hate speech” under an anti-gun, anti-freedom administration like the current one; after all, the Biden administration seems to be looking for any means to disarm America’s law-abiding gun owners.
Incidentally, in the same interview, Chipman showed he’s not above playing petty, partisan politics when he gets his chance in the limelight. He also took the opportunity to throw a barb at then-President Donald Trump (R).
“We have to do more to monitor hate speech on the internet,” he said. “But we also have to do more to curb that same speech being presented by our president and other elected public officials.”
All of this, of course, is just one of many reasons why Chipman shouldn’t be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and why every American should contact their U.S. senators and let them know how strongly they feel about defeating Chipman’s nomination. It’s time for freedom-loving senators from both parties to stand up and say enough is enough by rejecting Chipman and asking President Joe Biden (D) to send them a more suitable nominee.
