Another Point of View: ATF Appointment Withdrawal Shows How Powerful the Gun Lobby Remains

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Of course, President Biden, a gun regulation activist and former alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives officer appointed to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, guns and explosives, could not pass the Senate course.

David Chipman, then senior policy adviser at the Giffords Law Center, speaks at a 2019 House Judiciary Committee hearing on assault weapons. The Biden administration recently withdrew the appointment of Chipman, a former federal agent, as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Andrew Harnik / Associated Press. To file

What are you waiting for, a Big Tech critic take over the Federal Trade Commission? A investor protection champion to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission? A longtime advocate for safer roads and skies to sit atop the National Transportation Safety Board? Someone with a solid track record in protecting our air, water and climate to lead the Environmental Protection Agency? These questions are facetious; thankfully we have all of these public servants in place, among many other regulators who have proven to have the courage to support well-established interests to protect the public interest.

Firearms are autonomous. After the gun industry screamed at the top of their lungs and Republicans and some pro-gun Democrats and Independents (we see you, Joe Manchin and Jon Tester and King angus) followed their example, Biden drawn The appointment of David Chipman.

Chipman’s unpardonable sin was, after serving 25 years as a decorated ATF officer, going to work for the gun safety organization of Gabby Giffords and others, where he argued for (misguided! ) style assault rifles and (triple egad!) stricter federal gun trafficking enforcement to prevent cities from being overrun with illegal handguns. In other words, he was ready to use his intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the ATF to prevent deadly weapons from falling into dangerous hands.

So this is where we are in America in 2021, even as the nation suffers a sickening crisis. spike in gun violence: Man with exemplary credentials and determination to prevent more carnage cannot lead federal agency whose mission is to “protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations” and “the illegal use and trafficking of firearms”.

Is it any wonder that the 81 percent of us who want universal background checks and the two-thirds of us who want the assault gun ban are at our end of the line?


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