The Trace: Chipman Nomination Hanging By A Thread

When even the Bloomberg-funded The Trace says David Chipman’s nomination to head BATFE is in trouble, you know it is in trouble.

The article is an attempt to rally support for Chipman and to put pressure on Sen. Angus King (I-ME), an independent who caucuses with the Democrat. King has said privately he is a “no” on Chipman.

They are now saying Chipman’s confirmation was always “a long shot.”

The Trace is now trying to portray the Chipmans as victims of “anonymous bloggers and social media sleuths”.

Tara Chipman told USA TODAY that she retired to avoid the conflict of working under her husband’s leadership or staying on in the aftermath of a failed nomination.

She cited cases of online harassment, including conspiracy theories tied to her mother, Olivia Cajero-Bedford, a former Democratic state senator in Arizona who proposed a ban on the bump stock devices now banned nationwide.

“The negative attention was more than either of us expected, especially me as a spouse,” Tara Chipman said Wednesday. “I don’t know why anyone would want a Senate-confirmed position in government. 

“I feel kind of powerless because, of course, I want to go after these people, but I don’t want to do anything to endanger David’s nomination.”

It is hard for me to believe that anyone who had been in DC as long as Mrs. Chipman can portray herself as so naive. It is rather disingenuous to say the “negative attention was more than either of us expected.” She would have been piling on to a Republican nominee and his or her spouse if they were affiliated in any sort of way with the firearms industry.

State of Mainers need to keep the pressure on King just as those in Montana and West Virginia need to keep the pressure on Senators Tester and Manchin.

By the way, I am not an “anonymous blogger”. My real name is on every one of the posts I’ve made about David and Tara Chipman. It is not my fault that they have left such a large presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Chipman Derails Black ATF Agent’s Career With False Accusation

Stephen Gutowski of The Reload has a story today of how David Chipman derailed a promising black ATF Special Agent’s career with a false accusation of cheating in a promotion assessment. Chipman’s accusation required a two-year investigation into the matter which effectively took this Special Agent out of contention for further promotions even though the agent in question was eventually cleared.

“I couldn’t believe it when it happened,” the agent told The Reload. “But when I read about his other comments, in my mind, I was like ‘that motherf*****.’ That’s what happened. He said, ‘Hey, a lot of African Americans qualified to be promoted on this certification list; they must have been cheating.’ And then he had to go and find one. I happened to be that one.”

He said he believes Chipman’s allegation after the in-person test was motivated by race.

“I believe it had to have been a bias,” the agent, who spent more than 25 years at the agency, said. “My answers were just ‘too good.’ And my thought is he just said, ‘this black guy could not have answered this well if he wasn’t cheating.’”

The agent said he was cleared by a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation, but not before his career took a hit. He said the protracted investigation effectively paused the promising career he’d built.

“I was cleared as I should have been,” the agent said. “But it was very painful because it was two years out of my life where my career was sidelined for something like that. And it caused me a lot of stress and my family a lot of stress. And it kind of disenchanted me with the idea of management.”

In the in-person assessment, the Special Agent was given a scenario and asked how he would handle it. In this particular case, unbeknownst to Chipman the scenario was something this agent had been doing as part of team for a number of years. The agent did well on it which led Chipman to make his false accusation of cheating.

Read the whole story which has been corroborated by another ATF agent.

We Should Sue Mexico For The Cartels Instead

So the Mexican government is suing US firearms companies for the bloodshed that they can’t control in their own country. Would it surprise you to learn that one of the lead attorneys on the case is none other than Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Center?

Of course it wouldn’t.

The 139-page lawsuit was filed in US District Court for Massachusetts. It names Smith & Wesson, Barrett, Beretta USA, Colt, Ruger, Glock, and Century International as defendants along with Interstate Arms which is a wholesaler.

From ABC News:

The Mexican government argues that the companies know that their practices contribute to the trafficking of guns to Mexico and facilitate it. Mexico wants compensation for the havoc the guns have wrought in its country.

The Mexican government “brings this action to put an end to the massive damage that the Defendants cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico,” the lawsuit said.

Then there is this overheated rhetoric from the complaint itself. I would have used another word but want to keep it family friendly.

F. Defendants Actively Assist and Facilitate Trafficking by Designing and
Marketing Their Rifles as Military-Style Assault Weapons.

Defendants’ design and marketing of their weapons exacerbate their reckless and
unlawful distribution policies. Defendants design and market their guns as weapons of war,
making them particularly susceptible to being trafficked into Mexico.

It has long been foreseeable and expected that Defendants’ marketing of their
guns as weapons of war would lead to their trafficking to the cartels in Mexico and to increased
homicides and other massive damage to the Government. The Government’s injury is the
foreseeable result of Defendants’ conduct.

Defendants design their guns as military-style assault weapons.

Military-style weapons are useful for killing large numbers of people in a short
amount of time, taking on well-armed military or police forces, and intimidating and terrorizing
people. The Manufacturer Defendants designed their assault weapons to be effective peoplekilling machines.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation wasted no time is issuing a new release calling out the Mexican government. They said, in part:

“These allegations are baseless. The Mexican government is responsible for the rampant crime and corruption within their own borders,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Mexico’s criminal activity is a direct result of the illicit drug trade, human trafficking and organized crime cartels that plague Mexico’s citizens. It is these cartels that criminally misuse firearms illegally imported into Mexico or stolen from the Mexican military and law enforcement. Rather than seeking to scapegoat law-abiding American businesses, Mexican authorities must focus their efforts on bringing the cartels to justice. The Mexican government, which receives considerable aid from U.S. taxpayers, is solely responsible for enforcing its laws – including the country’s strict gun control laws – within their own borders.

“The American people through their elected officials decide the laws governing the lawful commerce in firearms in our country,” Keane added. “This lawsuit filed by an American gun control group representing Mexico is an affront to U.S. sovereignty and a threat to the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms. A right denied to the Mexican people who are unable to defend themselves from the cartels.”

Larry Keane is right. The allegations are baseless. Moreover, the failure of that nation to right in their criminal cartels is at the root of the problem. That they are aided and abetted in this nonsense by the Brady Center is illustrative of the hatred that Mr. Lowy and the rest of the gun prohibitionists have for the rule of law, United States sovereignty, and democratically passed legislation such as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. Instead of practicing lawfare, if they want the law to be changed, go to Congress and work to have it changed.

I have embedded the full complaint below using ScribD. It was too large a document for a direct embed.

Mexico v. Smith and Wesson by jpr9954 on Scribd

It’s Called The Constitution

The Orange County Chapter of Brady United has their panties in a wad because Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC11) had a firearm in his carry-on when going through TSA security and wasn’t arrested. He asked them to hold the firearm for him until he returned and they did. If you read the whole story, you will see this happened to others and they were not arrested either.

One reason that Rep. Cawthorn was not arrested is called the US Constitution. Specifically, Article I, Sec. 6.

It states, part:

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

I guess it is no surprise that a chapter of Brady United is ignorant about Article I of the Constitution given their intentional ignorance of the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

In full disclosure, Madison Cawthorn is my representative and I have given him a campaign contribution. It wasn’t much but I did get a personal call from him thanking me for it.

H/T Sean S.

Off Topic But You Can’t Make This Up

We have all heard stories that you think had to be made up. Sometimes they were. Sometimes they were actually true. This is one of them.

A new law in Washington State only allows police to chase criminals if they suspect a violent crime has been committed. In this case, a recently released psych patient stealing a school bus didn’t count. Two different sheriffs’ departments briefly engaged in chase but called it off due to the new law.

The house Andrew Loudon tried to destroy belong to his estranged wife. According to another story, she fled the house after hearing he was in town.

I’m just going to make a guess here on his future residence but I think it might have “state hospital” in its name.

The Trouble With Paying Dane-Geld

Earlier this week, news broke that Remington was offering to pay the Newtown families who had sued the company $33 million to settle the lawsuit.

From The Hill:

Gunmaker Remington Arms Co. has offered around $33 million to settle a lawsuit brought by nine families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Remington Arms Co. LLC and Remington Outdoors Co. Inc., collectively referred to as “Remington,” offered $3.66 million to each of the nine plaintiffs in the lawsuit against them over the 2012 Newtown, Conn., mass shooting, which left 20 children and six adults dead.

Actually as NBC Connecticut makes clear, it is the two insurance companies who might be on the hook in the case who are offering to settle. This is common practice for insurance companies who make the calculation that it is cheaper to pay off the plaintiffs rather than continue to rack up legal fees.

That the case is even going forward is due to a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that said Remington could be sued for potentially violating the state’s unethical advertising statutes. This was an end around the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which said firearms companies could not be sued for criminal misuse of a firearm. Unfortunately, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari to Remington when they appealed.

The problem with settling is that it sets a bad precedent. So bad that it encourages other plaintiffs attorneys to sue other manufacturers when their products are criminally misused.

Thus, we have notice today of a case in Ohio where Cooper Elliott, a torts law firm that has colluded with the Brady Center in the past, plans to sue the US affiliate of a South Korean magazine manufacturer. This is based upon the use of their 100-round magazine in a mass casualty event in Dayton, Ohio in 2019.

From WBNS Channel 10:

Family members of some of the Dayton mass shooting victims will be filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturer of the 100-round magazine used in the attack.

In a news release, Columbus-based law firm Cooper Elliott said the lawsuit will be filed against Kyung Chang Industry USA Inc. and its related South Korean company on Monday. Claims against the company include negligence, negligent entrustment and public nuisance…

According to Cooper Elliott, their client claims there are only two uses of a 100-round magazine: by the military or in a mass shooting.

“The risks to public safety of making and selling these to civilians outweigh any benefits. They are also not aware of any meaningful protocols, checks, or oversight KCI has in place to make sure its product isn’t used in a mass shooting. Therefore, it was foreseeable that, without sufficient safeguards, providing 100-round magazines to the general public would likely result in them being used in a mass shooting.”

Cooper Elliott says the lawsuit will be filed in state court in Clark County, Nevada where KCI is located.

This is a BS lawsuit but once ambulance chasers start to see “dane-geld” being paid, they will start chasing it. This is what the PLCAA was supposed to prevent.

I think Rudyard Kipling said it best in his poem Dane-Geld.

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
  To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
  Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
  And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
  And then  you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
  To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
  We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
  But we've  proved it again and  again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
  You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
  For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
  You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
  No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
  And the nation that pays it is lost!"

Uncle Ted (Nugent) Resigns From NRA Board

Ted Nugent aka Uncle Ted aka The Motor City Madman has resigned from the NRA Board of Directors effective immediately. He was first elected to the Board in 1995 and has been re-elected continuously since.

According to Nugent, his resignation is due to his becoming the national spokesman for Hunter Nation. His contract with them requires exclusivity.

Hunter Nation posted this on their website:

Kansas City…Hunter Nation, the fastest growing grassroots organization in the country dedicated to protecting the rights of hunters, inked a historic partnership with Ted Nugent by naming him their National Spokesperson in a deal announced today.

Hunter Nation President and CEO, Luke Hilgemann said, “Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Hunter Nation.  Ted Nugent has been an icon in the hunting and outdoor community for decades and no one has fought harder to protect the rights of hunters than Uncle Ted.  We are beyond excited to officially partner with Ted to help us grow our army of hunters, increase our impact on policy, and continue to activate millions of American hunters to vote their values and protect our traditions – basically continuing the legacy Uncle Ted has built as the Ultimate BloodBrother!”

“Being addicted to truth, logic, commonsense and the American Way for 72.6 years, I am compelled to stand up and shout it out loud and proud from every mountaintop I ascend every day,” asserts Nugent. “Freedom is not free and I want to earn it to the best of my ability and I am excited to be working with the Hunter Nation team to do just that.”

I will admit that I am not familiar with Hunter Nation so I can’t say whether it is a good more or not for Ted.

That said, I have long held that there really is not much of a place for celebrities on the Board of Directors. I much rather see work horses than shoe horses on it.

In addition, any celebrity or really any one with deep pockets who remains on the Board is doing so at their own risk. If I were their risk manager or their attorney I’d be advising them to run and run fast. The liability issues surrounding the Board’s fiduciary duties and their lack of attention to them are just too great.

UPDATE: Stephen Gutowski of The Reload had the email sent out by John Frazer to the Board. He is blaming scheduling conflicts.

Still Working Out The Kinks In MailPoet

If you didn’t receive an email with my latest posts, that is because I’m still working out the kinks in MailPoet. That is the app that is supposed to automatically send full text updates of all my new blog posts once a day.

It would have done it this morning if I had linked it to the correct mailing list. As it was, the list was linked to a default list with zero subscribers and not the real list.

Oops.

Maybe tomorrow it will work properly.

Software. You can’t live with it and you can’t live without it.

Psaki Asked If Chipman Nomination Would Be Pulled

A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jen “Baghdad Bob” Psaki if the President was going to pull Chipman’s nomination to head BATFE.

Here is the Q&A from the White House website:

Q    And on a different topic: What is the White House doing to specifically win over support from Democrats on the nomination of David Chipman to lead the ATF?  Senator Durbin just told us this morning that Democrats don’t have the votes, and Senator Tester also signaled this morning that the nomination could even be pulled.  So does — is the White House still pushing through on that nomination?  And what is the White House doing to whip up votes? 

MS. PSAKI:  Well, I’d first remind people, as you well know, but for others, that not only is he a veteran of the ATF, but he’s somebody who has been a supporter of smart gun reform measures that could save lives of people across the country.  And we — the President felt quite confident in the — his qualifications and his ability to lead the agency at a time where it hasn’t been led for many years. 

In terms of our specific legislative strategy, I’d really have to talk to the team and see where things stand with that.

Forbes captured this exchange and you can watch Psaki start to dance.

You have to believe Tester is praying that Chipman’s nomination is pulled so he doesn’t have to go on record. At the end of last week a guest editorial by Donald Trump, Jr. appeared in the Billings Gazette saying that Tester cannot support both Chipman and the Second Amendment. He pointed out that many hunting groups have come out against Chipman.

Playing Politics With CCW Permits In Florida

Nikki Fried (D-FL) is the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. As such, she is in control of the issuing of concealed carry permits for the State of Florida. She is also the only statewide Democrat office holder. She is an announced candidate for governor of Florida in 2022. Her announcement video mentions that she “kicked the NRA out of gun licensing” for “the children”.

Commissioner Nicole "Nikki" Fried
Official Photo

When she ran for Commissioner of Agriculture in 2018 her major issues included medical marijuana and gun control. Fried has both a medical marijuana card and a Florida carry permit. She has contended under Florida law it is legal to have both. However, Federal law still prohibits the purchase as well as possession of firearms by those with medical marijuana cards. As a lawyer and former public defender one would think she would be careful about setting up people to run afoul of Federal firearms laws.

Today, Fried has gone a step further in playing politics with gun rights. She has suspended the carry permits of Floridians charged with involvement in the Jan. 6th riot at the US Capitol.

From Florida Politics:

“The deeply disturbing events that occurred at our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6 were sedition, treason and domestic terrorism — and those individuals involved in the insurrection must be held accountable for attempting to subvert our democratic process,” Fried said.

“Since charges began being filed, we are using our lawful authority to immediately suspend the licenses of 22 individuals involved in the storming of the U.S. Capitol. This is an ongoing effort, and as charges and sentences continue in the wake of this despicable attack, we will further suspend and revoke any additional licenses granted to insurrectionists.”

Florida law allows the suspension of carry licenses for those charged with a felony. However, many of those arrested for involvement in the riot have not yet been charged with any crime which calls into question whether Fried is acting outside the law. She certainly is playing politics with carry permits.

The article from Florida Politics goes on to note:

While Fried’s office by law cannot identify which individuals arrested have ever applied for or received a concealed carry permit, several of the individuals arrested were outspoken gun rights advocates.

It does make you wonder whether she is targeting only certain individuals. Fried certainly is using loaded language when she calls these people “insurrectionists”.