Follow the money. Installing one person to do the gun control lobby’s bidding from the inside has always been the goal. USA Today and gun control mouthpiece The Trace are saying it out loud now.
In fact, they’re downright giddy that they’ve gotten the response from lawmakers they hoped for. They used a simple formula. Make up a crisis. Find a straw man. Report the “problem” as a widespread issue and propose “their guy” as the solution.
USA Today and The Trace, an advocacy platform that gets 70 percent of its funding from antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety gun control group, while disguising itself as pseudo-journalism, ran a hit piece targeting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). They pitched the ATF as an organization that’s understaffed, hamstrung, and beholden to the firearm industry.
The authors, of course, had a solution. Bring in new leadership. It just happens that the person they are propping up for the job is David Chipman, a paid gun control lobbyist who once worked for Everytown, as well as the gun control groups Brady and now Giffords, for whom he is currently employed. USA Today accused the firearm industry of a callous response to helping the ATF when it came to resources.
Discredited Narrative
The Federalist’s co-founder Sean Davis caught wind of the so-called investigation and rained on their parade.
“An examination of NSSF’s appropriations request history as well as interviews with former top ATF officials, however, directly contradicts the narrative being manufactured by USA Today and the Bloomberg-funded The Trace,” Davis wrote.
“Mike Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor and former acting director of ATF from 2006 to 2009, told The Federalist that [Richard] Marianos’s claim, as characterized by [Nick] Penzenstadler, was not true.”
Bearing Arms’ Cam Edwards was quoted in a follow-up by USA Today/The Trace for pointing out the obvious.
“While the new series by USA Today and The Trace is meant to bolster the argument that the ATF needs a permanent director like Chipman to whip agents into shape and to close gun shops that have repeatedly run afoul of the agencies regulations, you could also make the argument that, if the agency is truly as soft on wayward gun dealers as the reporters claim, that an ATF veteran like Chipman has been part of the problem,” Edwards wrote. “After all, he spent 25 years as an ATF agent, including several years where he was head of the Firearms Division.”
‘Their Guy’
Edwards astutely noted on his show Cam & Co., that gun control groups like Everytown and Giffords are in cahoots with the Biden administration to weaponize the ATF against the firearm industry. Edwards said it is an effort to make an “end-run around Congress.”
“There’s no doubt that one way or the other, the Biden administration views the ATF as one of its keys to advance its anti-gun agenda, particularly with the filibuster still in place in the Senate and 60 votes not present for the type of gun ban Joe Biden wants to put in place,” Edwards said.
What It Would Look Like
This is exactly what NSSF warned would happen prior to the presidential election. In October 2020, NSSF published a press release quoting NSSF’s Larry Keane.
“The Biden-Harris ticket will weaponize the ATF against retailers to close them down for even minor clerical errors in inspections,” Keane said. “This a promise Senator Kamala Harris made from the campaign stage. She has vowed to turn the ATF from an agency which assists family-owned firearm retail businesses to stay within the overwhelming labyrinth of federal and state laws and regulations to one that carries a heavy hammer and will shutter federally licensed retailers for minor administrative errors.”
To understand what a future ATF would look like under Chipman working as a gun control henchman for the Biden administration, one only needs to look back to the scandals during the Obama administration.
The Biden administration would return the ATF to the same problems when the bureau was embroiled in the ill-fated “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal that cost the life of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The ATF’s involvement was revealed to be under the direction of the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice when the bureau allowed illegally purchased firearms to cross the United States-Mexico border and failed to track them.
Firearms from that bungled operation were recovered at crime scenes on both sides of the border, including a .50 caliber rifle recovered during the arrest of Mexican drug lord and cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
ATF inspectors of mom-and-pop retailers would turn inspections that assist small business retailers to comply with federal laws and regulations to inspections that would revoke licenses for minor administrative errors. The ATF would become a political tool to drive an anti-gun agenda instead of a regulatory agency that ensures compliance.
This is, of course, exactly what USA Today and The Trace want. Now that they’ve published their reports, they’ve got U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) calling for Chipman’s confirmation because of “systemic issues within the agency that couldn’t be solved by money alone.”
Chipman isn’t the cure. Politicizing the ATF to drive an agenda and circumvent Congress’s legislative authority isn’t the fix. It’s the problem.
Every freedom-loving American needs to call their senators at the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to protect the ATF from infiltration of special interest politics. Tell them to vote “NO” on Chipman.
Mark Oliva is Director, Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. He is a retired Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant with 25 years of service, including tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Albania, and Zaire.
It is clear chipmonkey is to the 2A what a drunk farting gasbag is to fine dining.
Well, that’s an interesting visual….
Chipman Z looks like a dangerous escaped mental patient. I believe in this instance you can judge the book by its cover.
He looks like he is channeling a full Gary Busey.
Chipman is a tool. Doesn’t matter who’s.
theBiden is going to piss a lot of law abiding people off. Chip does look like a deranged mental patient.
Chipman, he works for a gunm control organization, and I bet hes took an oath to protect the constitution same as theBiden. That’s confusing. theBiden should be impeached for lying under oath.
My question is why does Our government fear us being armed?
“My question is why does Our government fear us being armed?”
You know the answer. I know the answer. We all know the answer.
Those who wish us disarmed know that we know. They cannot answer the truth out loud. The only ones who don’t know the answer are the ones who don’t know history, don’t comprehend the facts and will be the useful idiots of those who wish us defenseless.
A better question. We are already armed and they do not fear us. Why?
Oh, that’s easy. Because most of you are bitchmade cowards who will fold like a cheap suit as soon as the government makes its push to confiscate guns. Book it.
Ultimately they can shut down infrastructure and turn any given metropolitan area into a disaster hellscape within a week and starve most semirural areas within a month (electricity/natural gas going out is a bitch). For those prepared enough not to be consumed by the previously mentioned chaos congratulations you are the kulaks for the useful idiots to eat or the army to root out as insurgents. Not exactly a rosy picture but one of my worst case guesses.
Make no doubt, they fear us. They need to get the guns to do the heavy handed things needed to control the population. The corporate world that controls the puppets in all governments wants this. They want control of the industrial world, once that is accomplished, they will start on the middle class, making us all equal to the underclass. We may even be allowed 7 sq meters per person.
It is going HOT very soon, especially if they keep up the aggressive attempts to disarm us.
Probably the best outcome is a national divorce. The socialists on one side of the country, and the Constitutionally limited Republic folks on the other. Of course, the socialists will likely all starve or get killed by inner city gang bangers before long, but that is their problem.
Because they know we know they are frauds and we know what their end game plan is. No guns for us peasants.
Hell they don’t even hide it that they want us to be a socialist country anymore. They want what’s in your pouch possum so they can give it to the rats.
I eat rats for breakfast.
Seriously:
My weapon is used for the defense of me and yours
, and the defense of my country the United States of America.
Why does my government want me disarmed ?
I write this in hopes of it really is true and the elf bee eye and secret agent mans read this. Because I want an answer.
Why does my government want a law abiding, tax paying, non relative burden to society, not to be armed for the defense of himself and his country ?
Chipman, your one of them. Tell me why.
,,,,,, use Miner49er ‘s name or something.
When it comes the oath, they’ll have their fingers crossed behind their backs.
It is as though they want to provoke a conflict. Perhaps to give them justification for what follows.
The oath should come with the caveat that ” Crossed fingers gets you broken necks.”
The BATFE is a 100% completely unnecessary Government entity and its needs to be dissolved. Tabaco regulation can go to the Agriculture Dept (as should pesticides), along with Alcohol regulations. The task of licensing dealers and regulating them should fall on the Commerce Dept. Criminal referrals from all these agencies can go straight to the FBI.
Background Checks, which are “Feel Good”, useless exercises, can stay with the FBI, including NFA checks, until such time as the NFA is dissolved as Unconstitutional.
The entire framework of federal gun regulation is just stupid, Firearms are Firearms and the categories of Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, machine gun, AOW, SBR, SBS, etc. should be commercial terms, but not legal definitions, as there is no point, either you are legally able to own a firearm or you are not. Regulating types is just silly.
Obviously, some other regulations should be in place, poising gas, dirty bombs, bio-weapons, nuclear weapons which have no practical militia use and would be generally prohibited.
We probably need to allow explosive projectiles/grenades under 1/2 lbs and weapon energy up to 4.5 Million Joules, to protect any future energy weapons, rail guns, etc. Bore diameter of 62mm or less sounds good, not the stupid .50 maximum, without being classified as a destructive device. The government can spend its time regulating these items and leave 99.99% of the rest of us alone.
This should get us back to practical parity with a Government bent on Tyranny or an invading force, etc. while still provide safeguards to prevent mass casualty attacks by small groups of people.
The Power of Government derives from the consent of the People that are being governed, not the other way around. Time to fix the imbalance.
if it isn’t a crew served weapon, it is my birthright as an American.
3 make a militia, crew served is a go.
And not a shot fired…..
Well at least not yet…………
What gun shops “have repeatedly run afoul of the agencies regulations”?
The ones BATF ordered to consummate the Fast & Furious sales to the Mexican cartel mules, or they’d have their FFLs pulled. See how easy that is?
The one run by a scarecrow?
All they have to do is change the rules and make the record keeping a real pain, and then check for violations. They will be able to shutter 30% of FFLs.
This is just crazy and we need to protect our FFLs, or else we will all be dealing with faceless corporations.
The State of Illinois put about half of the tabletop FFLs out of business with the newly elected governors pen.
The state law said basically you need 24/7 video surveillance, BIG gun safes, cameras where people where filling out 4473s and doing transfers and a nasty alarm system.
The LGS’s didn’t really care as most of them already have this. The problem is it doesn’t take long to steal guns and ammo if you are close to a major highway or tollway and a reasonable distance from the local PD.
Well to make this part short, a couple of LGs’s got lazy about clearing the cabinets every night. Ammo was stacked behind the counters. Two minutes in and out in the middle of the night and gone with 4 ARs, pistols and ammo.
What does this have to do with David Chipman? Simply even though NICS checks go through the FBI, the ATF puts them on microfilm.
Here’s Chipmans problem with that:
“Federally licensed gun dealers are required to submit sales records to the ATF when they close up shop. The ATF has acquired a massive library of such records: more than 285 million, which it scans and digitizes. Those documents are saved into one of the 25 “data systems” that help the ATF source guns used in crimes.
The physical records, some 20,000 boxes, are then stashed away in the Trace Center building and in the parking lot, filling about 25 shipping containers. They are stored there to keep the floor inside from collapsing.”
285 million 4473s on microfilm, to me it seems that the ATF will get through them say in 75 years? Are they just going to have a hiring spree and hire thousands of agents? I don’t think so.
On top of that this how well lets say the state of Illinois at keeping basic records. It shows exactly why the FOID system is useless regardless of any legislation they pass. Basically if the ATF is as incompetent as this on the federal level (I think they are) then a lot of people are getting their panties in a bunch for no reason.
https://abc7chicago.com/politics/woman-gets-foid-card-with-wrong-picture-after-yearlong-wait/10768765/
SAFEupstateFML makes such a statement. The problem is it’s completely false. They can put barbed wire around the capital but “Ultimately they can shut down infrastructure and turn any given metropolitan area into a disaster hellscape within a week and starve most semirural areas within a month (electricity/natural gas going out is a bitch)” is quite the stretch.
I would put money on the gangbangers in any metro area being able to take on the Feds, National Guard and every other entity who tried to “turn any given metropolitan area into a disaster hellscape.” Most impoverished areas are already that but to have the gangs unite to fight off the government trying to take control of their turf? My moneys on the gangs.
Or
“starve most semirural areas within a month (electricity/natural gas going out is a bitch)” Where I live it would take much longer for that to effect most of the people around me, most people have enough food for at least a year and many use solar for electricity. If you have food, water and shelter plus the advantage of knowing the terrain then you win. My moneys on the locals.
This is assuming that our own military would attack it’s citizens which I doubt would happen. Another assumption is the military has it’s own logistics chain which only partially true. IF (that’s a BIG IF) the military got involved you’ll find out that about 80% of the logistics chain is controlled by private companies.
With no supplies our military crumbles.
Let them talk their talk, I want to see how they are able to enforce it.
You are very optimistic on the .gov inability to influence infrastructure and you are welcome to your opinion. I would call attention to the relative ease of electronic disruption of multiple industries in the past few weeks by apparent foreign hackers. What could a state sanctioned operation accomplish especially with more of the system being readily accessible? With that said I do agree the military would quickly crumble but I would question whether desertion would be the primary cause vs logistics. As to chaos in urban areas overwhelming police/other may wanna reread a lot of what happened in New Orleans during Katrina. Isolated pockets of order were maintained of course but no where near enough guardsmen to begin to give the semblance of order. Realistically the more likely scenario would be to make as many gun owners felons as possible and bankrupt them trying to preserve/regain their rights and make firearms too expensive for the overwhelming majority of Americans to own through a variety of methods. To say Fedzilla could not make life utterly horrific if it got the idea however lacks imagination and could easily create an easily exploitable blind spot for both foreign and domestic bad actors.
Biden is going to go through with a full civilian registration and disarmament scheme unless the courts intervene. To what extent and degree Bidens KGB will use to enforce his unconstitutional actions is unknown, but Ruby Ridge and Waco are proof of the degree of Tyranny our government is capable of. Both those actions began with ATF investigations of illegal arms. I am convinced Biden and his handlers are determined to go full Stalin on gun owners, and conservatives, or anyone that does not conform to the new Marxist order.
This is why gun owners must follow in the footsteps of their colonial ancesters and resist tyranny at every step, if we are to have a chance at retaining our freedom and our Republic.
The problem with Ruby Ridge and Waco is lots of feds, immovable sites. Waco had all of the people trapped in a wooden compound and Ruby Ridge was a cabin that was also immovable.
As put Bidens KGB does not have nearly enough manpower to take down the armed populace, hell I doubt they could figure out who is armed and who isn’t.
Are they going to pick say 100,000 4473s from the 285 million they have and go after 100,000 legal gun owners at 100,000 different locations?
If that were to happen then the SHTF and it goes public. No amount of pysops from MSM is going to convince 250+ million people to just surrender their firearms, as a wild guess I would say that at least 150 million have the “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands” mindset.
Yes we should key a close eye on Chipman and pals but there is no way in hell they are going to disarm the United States. They are outnumbered and outgunned. The locals would not want any part of this and the military has a duty to protect the citizens, not kill them for noncompliance of something that should and will be settled in the courts.
We have the Second Amendment on our side and sheer numbers. I think that 300 million people can take down 2600 ATF agents. Katrina came out of nowhere and there was widespread chaos and looting.
If the feds tried to take over a metro area it just isn’t going to happen, “We Live Here”. The squabbling over drugs and turf would quickly be aimed at a common threat. That threat would have no idea where the gunfire is coming from and where things are stashed.
There is no way that any major metro area is going to be like what happened in Mogadishu. There is no way that out in the rural areas that there will be any disarming. The good old boys in the country know how to take cover and shoot.
I have a lot of faith in our country and the fact that citizens are not going to allow goons like Chapman roll in and pull another Waco or Ruby Ridge. If they try it I will show up and I’m pretty sure at least another million patriots will also. It wont be the party that happened at the Capital, it will be in defense of the Constitution and the Citizens of the United States.
As many on this forum have said:
Fuck You, I Will Not Comply.
What’s particularly black-humorous is that I keep getting email solicitations from pro-gun orgs demanding that I “click here to tell your senators to reject Chipman.” And I’m going to rush to do that, especially when one of my senators is Chipman’s current employer and runs a national anti-gun organization.