By Andy Massimilian
ATF director nominee David Chipman got off easy at his confirmation hearings. Gun-hating democrats (i.e. 99% of the party’s officialdom) made the hearing ludicrously short leaving room for only a cursory examination of the impact this dedicated civilian disarmament advocate would have on gun owners and the gun industry.
Though Second Amendment defenders on the Senate Judiciary committee at times made Chipman look foolish, they failed to expose the danger he presents to our liberties.
Here are seven questions that would expose Chipman as an authoritarian gun control fanatic that he is, someone who will go out of his way to curtail your Second Amendment rights. Our Second Amendment allies in the Senate need to ask them, and demand that Chipman provide answers before holding a vote to confirm him.
1) If a ban and mandatory registration of currently owned “assault weapons” becomes law as you wish, will you send SWAT teams to Americans’ homes to forcibly confiscate unregistered firearms and imprison gun owners who refuse to comply? If not, how else would you enforce such a law?
2) Was enforcing the National Firearms Act’s registration requirement for machine guns worth the loss of life at Waco? If it wasn’t worth it, why do you support expanding that same requirement to regulate the most popular rifles in America with the possibility of similar outcomes?
3) Name three gun laws or proposed laws that you think are unconstitutional.
4) You’ve stated that if confirmed you will continue to “go after the bad guys” as you say you did when you worked at ATF. Do you consider people who are not prohibited from owning guns, but wish to build their own firearms to maintain their privacy and avoid government surveillance to be “bad guys?” You refused to answer Senator Kennedy’s question on what firearms you own saying that is “a very private question.” Can you see any inconsistency in your position?
5) How will confirming a gun control zealot — one who was paid to advocate for gun bans that would impact innocent Americans who have not committed crimes — give people faith that the justice system is not corrupt and that their government’s law enforcement leaders impartially, dispassionately, and objectively enforce the law? Would you have supported former President Trump naming a gun industry lobbyist to head the ATF?
6) ATF has a history of proposing changes to its regulations for political reasons. Examples include Striker shotguns, arm braces, silencer wipes, the definition of receivers, M855 ammunition, M-14 receivers, and bump stocks. Do you think it’s fair that ATF changes long-standing policies that create felony level jeopardy for innocent citizens who acquired property legally before these changes? What new regulatory changes will you try to implement as ATF director if confirmed?
7) Does the Second Amendment guarantee a right to keep and bear arms for self-defense? If so, is the “sporting purposes” test in the 1968 GCA unconstitutional?
What You Can Do…Especially Residents of WV, PA, MT, ME and AK
An ATF acting under David Chipman’s direction will be a partisan, de facto subsidiary of the gun control industry. Call your senators NOW and tell them to oppose David Chipman’s nomination as ATF director: 202-224-3121.
Also, cut and paste this article and ask Senators Manchin, Tester, Cotton, Cruz, and Hawley to get answers to the above questions before Chipman’s nomination is voted on. Here’s the links and phone numbers to do so.
Joe Manchin 202-224-3954 https://www.manchin.senate.gov/contact-joe/email-joe
Jon Tester 202-224-2644 https://www.tester.senate.gov/contact/
Tom Cotton 202-224-2353 https://www.cotton.senate.gov/contact/contact-tom
Ted Cruz 202-224-5922 https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=form&id=16
Josh Hawley 202-224-6154 https://www.hawley.senate.gov/contact-senator-hawley