U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Joe Biden has a problem with gun control, and not the least part of his trouble is a report in Politico stating that “his pick to oversee the nation’s firearm regulations is stuck in limbo in the Senate.”
The nomination of gun control proponent David Chipman, now working as a senior policy advisor to the Giffords gun prohibition lobbying group, deadlocked in the Senate Judiciary Committee on an 11-11 vote, and it may take some parliamentary maneuvering to move the nomination to the Senate floor for consideration. Politico noted the Senate must vote to discharge the nomination, but currently, some Democrats reportedly have not made up their minds. The lineup includes Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), Angus King (I-Maine), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Jon Tester (D-MT).
Tester needs to read the political winds considering the scathing Op-Ed Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen authored last month in the Great Falls Tribune. Right up front, Knudsen, a Republican, was brutally direct, calling Chipman’s nomination “an attack on (the Second Amendment) and on the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners in Montana – and the U.S. Senate must vote against his confirmation.”
“Our state has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the nation,” Knudsen wrote. “Far beyond a hobby or even passion, firearms are a part of our heritage and everyday life. We use them to hunt, protect livestock, and provide peace of mind when law enforcement may be miles away. Mr. Chipman has a long history of involvement with and lobbying for organizations whose mission is to diminish the Second Amendment.”
Chipman’s nomination might move to the front burner any time, though with the Senate calendar showing lots of time off this month, it might not, either.
With this as a backdrop, Biden on Monday huddled with mayors from Washington, D.C., and San Jose, Calif., and police chiefs from Chicago, Memphis, Wilmington, N.C. and Newark, N.J., along with Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, White House counsel Dana Remus and Susan Rice, his domestic policy adviser.
Their concern is the rising homicide count in major cities across the country. As noted by the Washington Examiner, “Democrats are blaming gun violence while Republicans take aim at a crime wave they argue has been unleashed by defunding or disrespecting the police in liberal cities.”
An attempt by the Biden White House to blame Republicans for the “defund police” effort blew up in the administration’s collective face, earning “three Pinocchios” from the Washington Post Fact Checker for the claim, which is tantamount to calling it lie.
Fox News reported that Biden’s scheme includes the creation of “five new strike forces” by the Justice Department. Their job is to “crackdown on illegal gun trafficking” that allegedly is supplying guns to cities in New York and in California’s Bay Area. The strike forces, according to Fox, will also target gun trafficking in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. All of those areas have strict gun control laws.
But gun control failures have never deterred Democrats in the past.
There is also a hint of hypocrisy in this move, considering that officials in these and other cities have supported so-called “sanctuary” mandates that prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with federal law enforcement when it comes to illegal immigration. Cooperation is only important when it applies to gun control.
As noted by the Washington Examiner, “Gun control is one way Democrats plan to fight back, putting Republicans on the defensive about what they describe as ‘common-sense gun reforms.’ President Joe Biden has called for a crackdown on ‘ghost guns’ and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, which he helped pass as part of the now-controversial 1994 crime bill during his Senate tenure but which has since lapsed.”
Then there is the political reality, also mentioned by the Washington Examiner.
“Even gun control proposals that poll well nationally, such as tighter background checks, have in the past done more to motivate gun owners to turn out in the midterm elections,” the newspaper observed. “This was the case after the assault weapons ban passed and Republicans picked up 52 House seats and eight Senate seats in 1994.”
Democrats haven’t entirely forgotten 1994 when they lost not only the House but then-House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA), who successfully ran as a pro-gun Democrat for several terms in his Eastern Washington district.
“The Democrats are mounting an all-out assault on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans,” said Chris Hartline, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to the Politico article. “The NRSC will certainly be closely watching which Democrats stand up for their constituents and which Democrats continue to take their orders from Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders and the radicals that run today’s Democrat Party.”
Biden promised to make gun control a priority in his administration. However, in the process he has declared open war on the rights of gun owners and is attempting to install a man at the head of the country’s firearms enforcement agency who is demonstrably anti-gun.
There does not appear to be a happy ending to this drama.
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
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