There is more trouble for David Chipman, the man Joe Biden has nominated to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, including an unfavorable survey of Pennsylvania voters showing nearly 60 percent opposition and a demand from a national gun rights group that allegations of racial bias be immediately investigated or the nomination be withdrawn.
Chipman is the former ATF agent who has been working as a gun control advocate in recent years with gun prohibition lobbying organizations, most recently Giffords. He has advocated for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and for other restrictions.
In a stunning report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the group revealed a survey it conducted among voters in Pennsylvania shows “nearly 6 out of 10…voters oppose” Chipman’s nomination. The actual finding, according to an NSSF news release, was 58 percent who “cannot support the gun control lobbyist to run the federal law enforcement bureau.”
But possibly the most alarming development has been the allegation that Chipman, while stationed in Detroit, made a derogatory comment about African American ATF agents “cheating” to pass an agency selection exam.
The Daily Caller reported days ago that a conservative watchdog group—the American Accountability Foundation—filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit “for records that could shed light” on an allegation that Chipman commented to a fellow ATF agent regarding the high number of black agents who passed an exam that, “Wow, there were an unusually large number of African American agents that passed the exam this time. They must have been cheating.”
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has demanded “an immediate investigation” into the allegation. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said the allegation is “alarming and incredibly disturbing.”
“With the racist history of gun control and past racist enforcement practices going back to Reconstruction,” Gottlieb said, “the last thing we need is someone heading ATF who not only wants to ban black guns, but also denigrates black people, including his own colleagues. It’s impossible for the Biden administration to not have known about this.”
According to the Daily Caller, “Chipman told Sen. Ted Cruz in writing that he received two Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints during his 15 years as a manager with the ATF. Chipman said the complaints were ‘resolved without any finding of discrimination and no disciplinary action was taken against me.’”
“This is a serious issue,” Gottlieb stated, “and it needs to be investigated now, before the Senate is asked to take any action. If Chipman made such a statement, it’s a slap in the face to millions of African American gun owners, and Democrats should be ashamed and embarrassed that Biden nominated him for such an important position.”
There is more trouble for Biden. A new Reuters/Ipsos shows “the number of Americans who approved of Biden’s stance on gun violence dropped 8 points overall and 11 points among Democrats from April to June.”
CCRKBA’s Gottlieb zeroed in on this revelation, stating, “There is no doubt our TV campaign, which continues into July, is a large factor in this decline because we’re telling Americans what the establishment media refuses to report about Biden’s gun control agenda. Between this week and next, we will be running our 60-second message at least 84 additional times, reaching millions of Americans who actually do cherish their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
Gottlieb confirmed that CCRKBA’s advertising will continue appearing on the following networks: Fox News, Fox Business, One America News Network, Newsmax, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, HLN, TrueTV, DishTV, DirecTV, Weather, Bloomberg, Investigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel, Destination America, SYFY, History, TV Land, CMT, Great American Channel, Rural TV and America’s National Voice Channel.
“Biden’s stance in gun control is even turning off members of his own party,” Gottlieb said. “It is becoming increasingly clear that he is out of step with mainstream Americans, and we will continue our public education effort to spotlight Biden’s extremism in hopes he will eventually get the message.”
