[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4993-S4994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of David H. Chipman

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last week, I came down to the floor to 
discuss how the ``defund the police'' movement has contributed to the 
surging crime we see around the country. And as I noted, the Democratic 
Party bears a substantial degree of responsibility to the situation we 
find ourselves in because this is a party that either actively 
contributed to defund the police rhetoric or implicitly endorsed it 
largely by staying silent.
  Now, however, Democrats have come to realize that attacking the 
police and the sharp spike in crime could hurt their electoral chances 
next year. And so the President and other Democrat leaders have, all of 
a sudden, announced their concern about rising crime rates.
  But as I said last week, they are still trying to have their cake and 
eat it, too, because missing from their messaging is any real 
condemnation of defund the police rhetoric and the toll it has taken on 
our cities and police departments. And their plans for confronting the 
surge in crime are long on punishing gun dealers and gun manufacturers 
and short on going after those actually committing crimes.
  It is typical of Democrats, for whom fighting crimes seems to involve 
controlling guns--specifically, guns owned by law-abiding gun owners--
more than it involves controlling criminals. What Democrats should be 
doing is training their attention on violent offenders, traffickers, 
and gangs, and illegal straw purchases; not finding ways to saddle law-
abiding gun owners with burdensome regulations because it is not law-
abiding gun owners who are responsible for most of the gun crimes in 
this country.
  The majority of gun crimes are committed by individuals who have 
obtained their guns illegally--illegally--which is why fighting these 
crimes should involve improving enforcement of our laws and increasing 
prosecution of those who violate them, not creating new laws that will 
only serve to further burden the constitutionally guaranteed Second 
Amendment right of law-abiding individuals.
  Unfortunately, as I said, Democrats are following their usual 
playbook during this recent crime surge, which they seem to see as a 
convenient excuse for pushing some of their gun control priorities.
  The President recently delivered remarks on crime, and the first 
priority he discussed at length was going after federally licensed 
firearms dealers. That is right, firearm dealers.
  While we can all agree that firearms dealers who violate the law 
should be punished, the rogue gun dealers that the President refers to 
are only responsible for a tiny fraction of guns being used in crimes.
  Going after gun dealers as one of your top law enforcement priorities 
is not going to do much to stem the illegal flow of weapons or their 
use in crimes. Enforcement dollars and enforcement personnel are not 
endless. You can waste a lot of money and a lot of man-hours conducting 
checks of law-abiding gun dealers while criminals continue to use their 
illegally obtained weapons unchecked.
  Nowhere are President Biden's priorities more clear than in his 
choice of nominee to lead the ATF, which is the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
  David Chipman would come to the ATF directly from an organization 
where he has spent the past 5 years as a gun control advocate. He is 
well known for his at times extreme views on gun control and 
restricting the Second Amendment, including his support for banning 
probably the most popular rifle in the United States. He supports a so-
called assault weapons ban, which usually refers to banning certain 
guns for their accessories and their appearance of lethality. But, 
alarmingly, he could not give a clear representation of how he would 
define such a policy in his confirmation hearing.
  Equally as troubling is Mr. Chipman's clear disdain for gun owners. 
He claimed that most individuals with concealed carry permits are 
either untrained or irresponsible. During the pandemic, he mocked law-
abiding gun owners and condescendingly said that first-time gun owners 
should put their guns away in their cabinets behind the beef jerky--
behind the beef jerky--that

[[Page S4994]]

they have presumably been saving for the apocalypse and only take out 
the weapons if ``the zombies start to appear.''
  I appreciate Mr. Chipman's long service as an ATF special agent, but 
I have serious concerns that, as the head of the ATF, he would spend 
more time going after law-abiding gun owners than actual criminals.
  The fact that he spent years as a gun control advocate gives us a 
pretty strong indication of what his priorities are likely to be if he 
ends up heading this Bureau. While Mr. Chipman couldn't make new gun 
laws as head of the ATF, he would certainly--I should say he could 
certainly have a hand in writing a whole lot of new regulations, 
regulations that could end up substantially burdening Americans' Second 
Amendment rights.
  ATF has already gotten away with the Biden gun control agenda with 
proposed rules against firearms parts kits often used by hobbyists and 
widely used stabilizing braces, often referred to as pistol braces, 
first designed to help a disabled veteran safely fire a weapon. These 
regulations would turn millions of legal gun owners into potential 
criminals, and David Chipman would be in charge of seeing them through.
  Moreover, his demeaning attitude toward gun owners should also 
disqualify him from the ATF position. An individual who regards law-
abiding, gun-owning Americans as a bunch of untrained and irresponsible 
doomsday preppers waiting for the zombie apocalypse has no business--no 
business--leading a gun enforcement Agency.
  The President, the Vice President, and Mr. Chipman may not like it, 
but the plain language of the Bill of Rights clearly guarantees the 
right of law-abiding Americans to own firearms. That right, like every 
other right guaranteed by our Constitution, must be respected and 
protected, and those who exercise their Second Amendment rights deserve 
to be respected as well.
  I do not believe we can rely on Mr. Chipman to respect our Second 
Amendment rights or the Americans who exercise them, which is why I 
cannot vote to confirm him as Director of the ATF. I encourage 
supporters of the Second Amendment on both sides of the aisle to oppose 
his nomination. Law-abiding, gun-owning Americans deserve better than 
Mr. Chipman to handle the ATF.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington