Remember that time the Biden Administration thought they could get away with nominating a paid gun control lobbyist to run the agency that regulates firearms in this country? Someone who had, let’s say, a checkered work history and had openly advocated for banning the most popular rifles in America?
That didn’t work out well for Susan Rice and the rest of the Pennsylvania Avenue crew who command Biden’s War on Guns. David Chipman met fierce opposition, even among some Democrats, and his nomination eventually went down in flames.
The latest move to insert a paid gun control advocate into a federal position isn’t quite as prominent or as influential, but it’s every bit as nauseating. And this time the administration tried to hide it.
Yesterday, the Department of the Interior announced the appointment of 18 people to something called the Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council. As Secretary Deb DeHaaland says, she’ll be “working with” this group of sportsmen and women to “expand access to the great outdoors, address climate change, and safeguard the wildlife and health of the natural systems that supply our food, water and other resources.”
One name on the list stood out to those of us who watch these things: Ryan Busse.
Busse, as you may be aware, is a former gun industry executive. One who saw and has taken full advantage of the lucrative opportunities available to anyone willing to become a professional apostate, positioning himself as a “brave voice” willing to “speak truth to power” by attacking the evil gun lobby and the NRA. A self-described “warrior for change.” All this, of course, while being celebrated by the media and cashing checks from the gun control industry and publishers.
Yet somehow, Busse’s extensive history of gun control advocacy — not to mention the name of at least one of his current paymasters — escaped the attention of the Department of Interior’s crack PR team who wrote the press release and published it on a Friday where it was sure to get the least possible attention.
In the list of council members, DOI’s press release describes Busse thusly . . .
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- Ryan Busse (unaffiliated) representing shooting sports interests.
Unaffiliated? Gosh, you’d think a government PR flack would be capable of looking at the man’s Twitter profile which lists him as a senior advisor for the Giffords gun control operation. Maybe a minute of Googling would have revealed the book he wrote, the op-eds he’s penned and the TEDx talk he likes to give. You know, the ones portraying himself a courageous truth-teller, a lone voice sounding the alarm on the evils and threats posed by America’s radicalized gun industry.
Ryan Busse is as “unaffiliated” as David Hogg is educated.
We talked to the NSSF’s Mark Oliva about Interior’s “stealth” appointment. He had this to say about that . . .
The appointment of Ryan Busse to the Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council, a federal advisory committee, is a farce and demonstrates the contempt the Biden administration holds for lawful gun owners who hunt on America’s public and private lands.
Busse was listed as “unaffiliated,” but that is not true. He is not an unaffiliated shooting sports interest expert. He is advisor for the Giffords gun control group and has openly advocates for a ban on the most popular selling centerfire rifle in America – the modern sporting rifle (MSR). He has published a book advocating radical gun control policies.
Glaringly absent, however, is any representative from the firearm and ammunition industry even though the industry is responsible for the vast majority of conservation funds through the Pittman-Robertson excise tax. To date, the firearm and ammunition industry has provided over $15.3 billion to wildlife conservation since 1937 and over $1.1 billion of the conservation funds apportioned to the states last year was directly tied to taxes paid by firearm and ammunition manufacturers.
The Biden administration has politicized this advisory council to legitimize Busse and the far-left gun control policies he and the gun control group he represents advocate. This is a sham and doesn’t come close to representing the interests of lawful gun owners who hunt and are faithful stewards of the precious wildlife resources our nation enjoys.
By appointing a politicized hack like Busse, the Biden Administration continues to cover itself in glory as it conducts its War on Guns and serves one of its most important constituencies: the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex.