Joe Biden
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
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Frustration with President Joe Biden’s “stuck-on-repeat” gun control focus that lets criminals run rampant is boiling over in Congress. Republican leaders in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are telling The White House that they are ignoring a crime crisis to push a radical gun control agenda.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to President Biden to end partisan attacks to advance a gun control agenda. Sen. Grassley pointed to The White House’s repetitive nominations of gun control advocates to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a position of public trust that must remain above the political fray. Instead, Sen. Grassley warned that presenting nominees who are entirely political in the execution of their duties would denigrate public trust.

President Biden recently nominated Steve Dettelbach to become ATF’s Director. Dettelbach has a public record of advocating for firearm bans, universal background checks and so-called “red flag” laws that violate Due Process and Second Amendment rights. Sen. Grassley was instrumental in blocking President Biden’s previous nominee, David Chipman, who was – and still is – a gun control lobbyist. NSSF awarded Sen. Grassley the 2021 Legislator of the Year Award for his principled stand.

biden dettelbach
President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Steve Dettelbach  (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

“The ATF Director’s roles should include having an appreciation for the role that firearms play in the lives of Americans, as well as servicing as a credible, effective liaison with the firearm business community,” Sen. Grassley wrote. “In this light, Mr. Dettelbach’s writings and social media activism are concerning and serve to undermine his ability to carry out those important roles.”

Senate Course Correction

Sen. Grassley reminded the president that the ATF Director isn’t someone installed to promote political agendas or carry out vindictive punishments. Rather, the role is distinctly apolitical. The person fulfilling the duties, Sen. Grassley wrote, must be an individual that respects Second Amendment rights, “and can deal fairly with the firearms industry.”

Sen. Grassley added, “The ATF Director’s roles should include having an appreciation for the role that firearms play in the lives of Americans, as well as serving as a credible, effective liaison with the firearm business community.”

Charles Chuck Grassley
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Sen. Grassley also chided President Biden for his pending Final Rule to redefine frames and receivers. That rule would also require firearm retailers to maintain records in perpetuity instead of the current 20-year standard. Sen. Grassley scolded The White House for wrongly blaming firearms when the administration should reverse course to confront the rising crime crisis.

“This is merely another attempt to use misleading statistics that lack context to rally support for failing Democrat policies,” Sen. Grassley wrote, adding, “Democrats have recently attempted to shift the blame for the rise in violence in blue cities to not only lawful gun owners, but also conservative states.”

House Course Correction

Criticism of President Biden’s ignorance of the crime crisis to advance his gun control agenda also came from Republican House leaders. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the Republican Congressional Conference Chair, wrote in an email alert, “As crime continues to skyrocket in cities across the country due to the Defund the Police movement and Far-Left policies, President Biden has chosen to attack law-abiding Americans exercising their Second Amendment right.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Rep. Stefanik debunked The White House’s hyperbolic claims of personally-made firearms. She cited similar FBI statistics that Sen. Grassley referenced in his letter. President Biden spoke of 325 homicides or attempted homicides connected to so-called “ghost guns” between 2016-2022. FBI statistics show there were 89,076 homicides during that time span, which doesn’t include attempted murders. Rep. Stefanik pointed out that this shows 0.36 percent of homicides were tied to these firearms.

“Rather than weaponizing the ATF to violate the Second Amendment right of law-abiding Americans, President Biden and House Democrats should start enforcing the laws we already have and turn their attention to the real threat facing our communities: the explosion of violent crime and increasingly emboldened criminals,” Rep. Stefanik wrote.

All Americans want safer communities. The way to get there is through frank and honest discussions, not scapegoating and blame-shifting. The White House must listen to Congress and address crime to serve the interest of Americans. Blaming lawful gun ownership is the wrong answer.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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47 COMMENTS

  1. Crime. 6 dollar a gallon gas. Inflation that is hurting the working poor. The same working poor that the dems claim they are helping. Folks are buying guns at a record clip. Nearly every body in America owns at least one gun at this point. Nobody wants more gun control.

    Mid terms are coming and in spite of miner49ers best propaganda efforts joe burden owns that shit.

    • Big Red Wave building into a Tsunami, sweeping Democrats out of control over the HOR and Senate. Followed by Removing and Replacing the Crypt Keeper Pelosi and Uncle Fester Schumer with Republicans. Then 25th Amendment Dementia Joe and Impeach Kamalho. Finding her guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Making the new Republican Speaker of the House. President…Kevin McCarthy.

      • “Finding her guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors“

        Would you mind being a bit more specific, exactly what crimes and misdemeanors are you claiming she is guilty of?

    • I’m going to have to push back on that comment jwm. We have to inflict economic misery on everyone in order to save humankind. Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but it’s the only way we’ll meet our goal of decreasing the warming trend by half a degree in eighty years. Yes, that’s the actual goal. We can’t do that without the rest of the world also joining our efforts. We’re the USA. We have to lead by example. China promised to do the same in eight years. They may have even signed a document. That means something! They wouldn’t burn us on that would they? #shutupandbuyatesla

      • I’ve driven quite a few electric cars. I worked at an auto auction for a while. My least favorite is the Tesla.

        I did like the BMW electric. And I’m not a BMW fanboi.

      • Oh, FFS, “Dude”, give it a rest!! You sound about as sane and rational as dacian the stupid.

        Yes, there is probably a “warming” trend going on (although the data we have to work from does NOT document such). I’m sure a certain amount of it is anthropogenic. There have also been periods, WAAYY before SUVs and cities, where the earth was warmer, periods where there were higher concentrations of CO2 in the air, etc. Grow the eff up, and stop being Chicken Little. The sky is not falling. The earth will not be depopulated in 12 years. The US has already EXCEEDED the CO2 reductions the globalist @$$wipes were demanding in the Paris Accord . . . and China and India are exceeding the (extremely modest) reductions in CO2 output they were asked to achieve.

        IF you think there’s a problem (hint: There isn’t)? Talk to the folks (India and China) who are causing the f***ing problem. As far as posting your insane BS on TTAG? Spare us your drivel, please.

    • FROM AN EX-COP,….All anti gun people or anyone against the 2nd amendment, and people engaged in promoting anti-American gun laws should be fired, sued or arrested and brought to trail! They need to pass laws for gun owner protection and rights. All arguments against guns is bull shit… guns do not kill people, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!
      THIS ANTI GUN GRAB BULL SHIT NEEDS TO STOP ! ALL IT IS, IS ANOTHER WAY TO CONTROL PEOPLE , AND TAKE THEIR RIGHTS AWAY.

      • “…should be fired, sued or arrested and brought to trail!”

        What trail?

        The ‘Trail of Tears’ in Oklahoma, perchance? 🙂

  2. Libs: The loving position is to let anyone come into this country. We don’t have to follow established laws. We don’t need an orderly process. It doesn’t matter that illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) is pouring into our country. Why doesn’t it matter? Because we aren’t going to do anything about illicit drug use anyway. It would be mean to tell druggies not to use drugs. We should just make them comfortable as they kill themselves. Sure that makes our gang problem even worse, but we’ll fix that by not prosecuting them. They’ll surely return the kindness by not killing so many people. Or maybe they won’t. It isn’t our place to say anything about that. Black Lives Matter! Long live Ukraine! Trans the kids!

    IMF overdose deaths: 65,000

    “Gun deaths” excluding suicides 2021: 21,000* (2016-2019: about 15,000 average)
    Why the massive jump? What happened? Were there fewer laws in 2021 than 2019? How about we examine that before anything else? Nah, that might implicate the dems. We’d rather let more people die.

    *I took the numbers from The Trace. I realize it isn’t trustworthy, but they show the massive jump after being steady for years.

    Motor vehicle crash fatalities: 37,000 in 2020, first part of 2021 showed an 18% increase over 2020

    Democrats are in charge and we have MORE “gun” deaths, more motor vehicle deaths, more overdose deaths, and yes, more Covid deaths. What are they doing to solve these problems? They’re just going after political rivals because that’s all they know at this point. The goal isn’t to solve problems, it’s to maintain power.

  3. This continuing discussion all revolves around the fallacy that laws prevent; they do not. Laws punish. Those who espouse laws to “prevent” are either ignorant or lying. POTG should know this and stop arguing using their terms.

  4. There are still some of us (unbelievably) who believe this is all being done out of stupidity or incompetence, both are true, but it’s all well planned and intentional folks!

  5. Biden says that there’s been no crime in America since he kicked Pop Corn’s ass. That was back when Joe was a full professor at the University of Harvard, just after he drove a truck with Xi over the Great Wall of China.

    • Everyone knows we have too many ghost gun deaths. That’s not who we are. Look. Here’s the deal. We have to, um, you know…okay…So how many times have you heard… I bet everybody knows somebody somewhere along the line, that in an intimate relationship, what happened was the guy takes a revealing picture of his naked friend, or whatever, in a compromising position and then literally blackmails that person…send it out online. Who’s with me?

      • Hah! Thanks for the belly chuckle! I needed that to start my shit storm day today…
        “…who’s with me? C’mon, man? bring that teen age girl over here and lemme sniff her hair. I know she’s with me…”

    • ‘Biden says that there’s been no crime in America since he kicked Pop Corn’s ass. That was back when Joe was a full professor at the University of Harvard, just after he drove a truck with Xi over the Great Wall of China.’

      He remembers riding ‘bitch’ when Evil Kineval
      jumped a bunch of busses at Ceasers Palace.

      Not the one on Vegas either.
      He DISTINCTLY recalls it was at the one in Rome.

      He walked off murmuring something about how it was nice place to go and sniff, you know, the thing………….hair. But that was before it burned down. 🤔

  6. quote—————- “As crime continues to skyrocket in cities across the country due to the Defund the Police movement and Far-Left policies,———–quote

    Falsehood. Defund the Police was taking way their budget to buy tanks and flame throwers that were being used on the citizens. In fact more money was recommended to train police in the technics of de-escalation and less use of lethal force.

    quote————-Democrats have recently attempted to shift the blame for the rise in violence in blue cities to not only lawful gun owners, but also conservative states.”——-quote

    A truthful statement because Conservative States allow private citizens to sell their second hand guns without background checks and those guns end up in big cities and states that have tough gun laws making those laws ineffective and totally useless.

    quote————-Rep. Stefanik pointed out that this shows 0.36 percent of homicides were tied to these firearms.——–quote

    Falsehood: Stefanik is a bold face liar and below is just a partial list of mass murders and homicides with ghost guns.

    A PARTIAL LIST OF LUNATICS AND CRIMINALS WHO BUILT GHOST GUNS AND USED THEM IN CRIME OR MASS MURDERS.

    Are ghost guns frequently used in violent crime?????????????????????????

    Yes, ghost guns are increasing being used in shootings across the country.

    In July 2020, an individual who was prohibited from possessing guns allegedly murdered two people in Pennsylvania using a homemade 9mm handgun.9

    In November 2019, a 16-year-old shot five of his classmates at Saugus High School in California—two of them fatally—using a homemade handgun, before fatally shooting himself.10

    In August 2019, a shooter used a homemade gun kit to build a .223-caliber firearm that he later used to fire 41 shots in 32 seconds in a bar in Dayton, Ohio, shooting 26 people and killing nine.11

    In 2017, in Northern California, a man prohibited from possessing firearms ordered kits to build AR-15-style rifles. On November 13, he initiated a series of shootings that began with fatally shooting his wife at home, followed by a rampage the next day during which he fired at multiple people in several different locations, including an elementary school, killing five people and injuring dozens more.12

    In 2013, a shooter opened fire in Santa Monica, California, shooting 100 rounds, killing five people, and injuring several others at a community college using a homemade AR-15 rifle. Reporting indicates the shooter had previously tried to purchase a firearm from a licensed gun dealer and failed a background check, potentially indicating why he opted to order parts to build a gun instead.13

    Law enforcement officials around the country are sounding the alarm about the dramatic increase in the recovery of ghost guns at crime scenes in their communities. ATF reported that approximately 10,000 ghost guns were recovered across the country in 2019.14 Ghost guns have also been illegally trafficked to Mexico.15 In addition:

    In 2019, Washington, D.C., police recovered 115 ghost guns, a 360 percent increase from 2018, when they recovered 25 ghost guns, and a 3,733 percent increase from 2017, when only three such firearms were recovered.16

    In 2019, ATF reported recovering 117 ghost guns in Maryland with almost 25 percent recovered from Baltimore alone. Ghost gun recoveries in the state then tripled in 2020.17
    According to law enforcement in Philadelphia, ghost gun recoveries in that city rose 152 percent from 2019 to 2020.18

    The special agent in charge of the ATF Los Angeles Field Division reported in January 2021 that 41 percent of the division’s cases involve ghost guns, and a May 2019 statewide analysis in California found that 30 percent of all guns recovered in connection with a crime in the state did not have serial numbers.19

    In addition, an investigation by The Trace found that ghost guns are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice for violent white supremacists and anti-government extremists.20

    In conclusion the ATF is a law unto itself and as in the past it rules at 8:00 AM and it is then a new “regulation” (disingenuous term for new law) is now the law of the land at 5:00 PM.

    No Judge Conservative or Liberal will declare the ATF ruling illegal or Unconstitutional because ghost guns are a danger to the people of the country and even the much ballyhooed Scalia decision with the usual double talk and smoke and mirrors declared “The Courts had the right to regulate firearms” (slick disingenuous term for ban or restrict firearms).

    In conclusion your right to own a weapon rests with the rulings of the courts, not the Constitution, and history has proven this reality like it or not.

    No sane person would want ghost guns legal and no other civilized nation tolerates them.

      • Jethro you reject documented news reports easily verifiable with law endorsement and as usual you claim it is fake news with the wave of your hand because it does not fit your warped Far Right political agenda. Sane people know otherwise.

        • You’re not a sane person, herr dacian. You are quite obviously mentally ill. Most of those ‘ghost guns’ are common factory guns with numbers scraped off. But the msm knew this and they count on damaged articles like you to spread the lies.

    • I don’t believe pedophiles have the right to breathe. Considering the majority of pedophiles are men, I don’t believe all men should be banned from having children.

      What are your thoughts Dacian? Do we punish or limit all men for the actions of a few?

    • Wasn’t “Defund the Police” about redirecting some of the police budget to soc!al workers and “community organizers”?

      We all know your final solution to gun crime is to eliminate gun owners because you believe they are the source.

    • “In August 2019, a shooter used a homemade gun kit to build a .223-caliber firearm that he later used to fire 41 shots in 32 seconds in a bar in Dayton, Ohio, shooting 26 people and killing nine.11”
      Wasn’t a “ghost” gun as the shooter had to pass a background check to purchase the serialized lower.

    • dacian, the Dunderhead. Nice try! YOU are LYING. The “Defend the Police” had not a damn thing to do with tanks, apc, etc. The Left and thank God unsuccessfully in most place to get the police budgets knocked down to zero if they could achieve that. Most place knocked off as much as half of the police budgets. Those “tanks and apc’s” you were talking about come directly from the military FREE OF CHARGE.
      Stefanik did not lie at all the fact is that what you Leftists are calling “ghost guns” are any gun that does not have a serial number of WHERE THE NUMBER WAS DEFACED. Most ghost guns never have been used in a crime. And I defy you to prove different.

      If someone is prohibited from purchasing a fully assembled firearm, and he gets himself a “ghost gun”, prosecute the SOB. Why should law abiding citizens be prohibited from making a “ghost gun” if they have the where with all to do it. You have heard of the Constitution and the 4th and 5th Amendments as well as the 2nd?

      What is a danger to the people, is people like you trying to make guns of all kinds illegal. you claim to own firearms? I DOUBT IT. You claim to be an “expert” but can’t even tell us the firing sequence of a cartridge or the difference between precision fire and aimed fire. In other words, Dunderhead, you are a first class FRAUD!

  8. And until Republicans take control of the Senate and House, Grassley’s “demands” are so much hot air (and probably even afterwards, given the spinelessness of the Republican Party). Get control of the Senate and House, then PASS a bill mandating CCW reciprocity, taking suppressors off of NFA status, THEN come talk to me about how “pro-2A” you are, you lying piece of dog excrement.

    • Bump it up a notch, Lamp. If Congress has the wherewithal to amend the NFA, why not just repeal it? I mean, if they can rearrange the bureaucracy sufficiently to create Homeland Security, they could do this. Unfortunately, the tendency is to add layers, rather then remove them.

      • hawkeye,

        With politicians, I learned long ago to manage my expectations. COULD a Republican Congress repeal the NFA?? Sure. If I can get them to declare suppressors legal, and approve CCW reciprocity, I’ll take my victory happily. Sure, repealing the NFA is “better”, but I’ll take what I can get.

  9. Everytime I hear ” We’re coming for your gunms.” I always flash the scene from Devils Rejects when Madam Firefly says ” You go gettem Sheriff.” and he does, and he too winds up in a box
    ” The Scorpio is ready ! ! !”

  10. SMOG IN THE AIR CO2 EVERY WHERE , WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN .
    POLLUTED WATER , AND MICRO PLASTICS , SUCK IT YA POLLUTING CLOWNS
    WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN .
    GHOST GUNS FOR A GHOST PLANET , WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN .

    • NTexas,

      GO TAKE A FLYING F*** AT A ROLLING DONUT, @$$WIPE!!! STOP SHOUTING, AND TAKE YOUR GLOBAL WARMIST BULLSHIT SOMEWHERE WHERE THEY GIVE A FLYING F*** ABOUT YOUR IDIOT OPINION!!!

    • Smitty,

      EWWW!!! That just sounds gross. Can I not, please??? Nor dacian the stupid, nor our nameless, brainless, d***less troll. I have standards, after all.

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