David Chipman, President Joe Biden’s (D) failed nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), continued to keep his anti-gun animus on full display in a recent interview where he doubled down on his previous extreme stances.
After his nomination came up short last September, Chipman later said, “The problem is the gun industry profits by gun violence itself.” He effectively vilified the entire industry that he was nearly in charge of overseeing, all without a shred of evidence.
And in a recent interview with Slate, Chipman once again made it abundantly clear why he was never fit to run the ATF. When asked about what actions the Biden administration is taking following the acts of a deranged madman in Brooklyn, Chipman said, “There is always more that this administration and every administration can do to prioritize gun violence, to prioritize our approach. But in this case, if we’re trying to pick villains or people who have fallen short, it’s really the gun industry and those elected officials that support them that have created a situation by design, and that is that gun violence is just really profitable.”
That’s right; firearms manufacturers are to blame, according to Chipman. He thinks that the actions of violent criminals—who have a blatant disregard for the rule of law—are a motivation for manufactures to make firearms, and believes that the entire industry is complicit.
Research into where criminals get guns overwhelmingly shows that criminals almost always obtain their firearms through illegal channels.
In fact, according to statistics from the ATF, the average “time-to-crime” (the amount of time between when a firearm was first sold by a gun dealer to when it was used—typically by someone who obtained the firearm by stealing it or in another illegal way—in a crime) nationally in 2020 was over seven years.
Chipman also avoids the fact that law-abiding Americans have purchased firearms in record-setting numbers since the first quarter of 2020. Polls show that the main reason people are purchasing firearms is for self-defense.
The Second Amendment isn’t behind the rising crime rate. The uptick in firearms purchases is a clearly a response to the misguided policies of anti-Second Amendment legislators, many of whom enjoy armed security.
Speaking about the Biden administration’s recent rule change on what is a “frame or receiver” and what constitutes a “firearm,” Chipman said, “the only reason to manufacture a gun that way is if you’re someone who wants to avoid a background check, such as a criminal or an extremist. There is no reason to do this. It’s not fun to make a frame or receiver.”
Is Chipman really this out of touch with DIY America? To Chipman, it’s inconceivable that anyone could enjoy gunsmithing, a craft which has long been an essential part of American history and culture.
Thankfully, his nomination was defeated, but President Biden recently announced the nomination of yet another anti-Second Amendment person, Steve Dettelbach, to head the ATF. Dettelbach was actually called “completely qualified” by Chipman in the same interview.
Just as David Chipman was stopped, it is going to take a lot of work to keep Biden’s newest anti-gun extremist out of the ATF. Click here to make your voice heard and support the NRA Institute for Legislative Action’s work in fighting this extreme nomination.
