U.S. Senator, Chuck Grassley, is applauding the Biden Administration’s decision to pull the nomination of David Chipman for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Grassley says, “Mr. Chipman’s long record as a partisan, anti-Second Amendment activist raised plenty of concern about how he’d administer federal firearms laws. But that wasn’t’ the only cause for concern. The record he concealed from Congress, some of which remains hidden to this day, about how he treated his fellow employees while at the ATF confirms his lack of fitness to lead the agency. The employees of the ATF and the American people deserve an ATF director who carries out the mission of the agency with respect for the Constitution and for all agency employees.” Chipman has been described as “a fierce advocate for gun control” and appointing him to lead the ATF is equivalent to putting a tobacco executive in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services or Antifa in charge of the Portland Police Department, according to Grassley. Chipman has also been accused of making racially insensitive remarks on multiple occasions while employed by the bureau. The ATF has not had a Senate-approved director since Obama-appointee, Byron Todd Jones, resigned in 2015.
