by When you are a nominee for a position that requires Senate confirmation, it is incumbent upon you to disclose everything. By everything, I mean everything. You gave a talk to Ms. Miller’s third grade class, you disclose it. You gave a speech to a group of lawyers, you disclose it. You wrote an op-ed that ran in a free paper, you disclose it. You have blogged for years under a pseudonym, you disclose it.
Disclosure just doesn’t seem to be in David Chipman’s wheelhouse and now it is coming back to bite him in the ass.
Andrew Kaczynski and Drew Myers cover politics for CNN. That network is not considered a bastion of support for the Second Amendment. Neither are they the “anonymous bloggers and social media sleuths” that Mrs. Chipman holds in such disregard. Indeed they are as mainstream media as mainstream media gets.
Thus, when they have a story that illustrates the failure of David Chipman to disclose talks he gave and events in which he participated, it is an issue.
From CNN:
In one undisclosed 2019 talk given to a law firm titled “Can the Right to Bear Arms Coexist with Gun Control?,” David Chipman said his views and politics weren’t typical of most at the ATF and in law enforcement because the groups were mostly “a very conservative bunch, primarily of white men.”
The comments are notable because Chipman’s nomination has struggled to gain support – even from some members of the Democratic caucus who have yet to commit to his nomination. Senators have questioned if his past record as an advocate for stricter gun laws would make him a less effective director.
And then there is this interview from a podcast in 2017:
In another undisclosed 2017 interview on Jared Huffman’s “Off the Cuff” podcast, Chipman said the NRA depends on an “un-American” business model that involves making society “less safe.”
“If (the NRA is) no longer selling a lot of guns to sportsmen and hunters and (their) primary business model is you need guns for public safety. Well, then you need an unsafe society to need to buy a gun,” Chipman said. “If your business model depends entirely on people feeling unsafe and scared and need to buy a gun, why would you want to do anything that makes things safer?”
Chipman added he needed to retire from the ATF after 25 years to talk about his views on gun violence “in a way” that would not end him up in jail for speaking to the press without authorization.
These are just two of the previously undisclosed talks and interviews involving Chipman. As the CNN story makes clear, there are more and they give links to them. A thorough search probably will find more.
We know that David Chipman hates us, our organizations, our rights, and our freedom. His nomination needs to be either withdrawn or defeated. I would prefer defeat because it puts the rest of the politicians who hate us on record.
