Biden ATF nominee accused of racism, hiding statements from lawmakers

[Elderberry]

New York Post by Samuel Chamberlain 8/12/2021

President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has come under additional pressure this week due to alleged racism and failure to disclose some public remarks to the Senate committee weighing his nomination.

On Wednesday, a black former ATF agent claimed that Chipman argued the agent must have cheated on a promotion exam because he had performed so well.

“He said, ‘Hey, a lot of African Americans qualified to be promoted on this certification list; they must have been cheating,'” the unidentified former agent told The Reload. “And then he had to go and find one. I happened to be that one.”

In one previously undisclosed talk Chipman gave to a law firm in 2019, he described ATF and other law enforcement agents as “a very conservative bunch, primarily of white men.”

The nominee also failed to disclose two appearances he made on the Beijing-run China Global Television Network in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed mass shootings and gun control.

At one point, Chipman claimed that the ATF defined an “assault weapon” as “any semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine above the caliber of .22, which would include a .223, which is … largely the AR-15 round.” A thunderstruck Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) pointed out in response that definition “would basically cover every single modern sporting rifle in America today.”

More: https://nypost.com/2021/08/12/biden-atf-nominee-accused-of-racism-hiding-statements-from-lawmakers/

[Smokin Joe]

Chipman is an ignorant ass.

.22 caliber is .22 caliber:

5.6mm
22 caliber, or 5.6mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm). Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used . 22 Long Rifle and . 223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_caliber

The 5.56 X 45 that the ordinary AR-15 consumes IS .22 caliber. The .223 designation only separates those .22 caliber cartridges from the also popular .22 rimfire cartridges.

[Elderberry]

Biden ATF pick David Chipman botches assault rifle definition at contentious hearing

New York Post   By Samuel Chamberlain May 26, 2021

https://nypost.com/2021/05/26/biden-atf-pick-david-chipman-botches-assault-rifle-definition-at-hearing/

Chipman, a former ATF special agent and senior policy adviser for the gun control organization Giffords, was less ambiguous about the AR-15. He told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that “I support a ban” on the rifle, which he was issued as a member of an ATF SWAT team.

“It’s a particularly lethal weapon, and regulating it as other particularly lethal weapons, I have advocated for,” said Chipman, who added, “as ATF director, if I’m confirmed, I would simply enforce the laws in the books and right now, there is no such ban on those guns.”

Chipman also walked back incorrect claims he made during a Reddit Q&A that members of the Branch Davidians sect members shot down two government helicopters during the FBI and ATF siege of their compound at Waco, Texas, in the spring of 1993.

“I could have done a better job by describing them as being ‘forced down’ because of the gunfire as opposed to shot down, which might have left the impression that they were blown out of the sky, which they were not,” Chipman said. “And I regret that confusion I added.”

Cotton also pressed Chipman on whether he would have the ATF investigate reports that first son Hunter Biden violated federal law by lying about his history of drug use in order to purchase a firearm in 2018.