By Steve Neavling

President Biden plans to withdraw his pick to lead the ATF, David Chipman, after the nomination floundered in the Senate, The Associated Press reports.

Chipman, a gun owner and former ATF agent, has come under fire for his support of firearm restrictions, including a ban on assault weapons. He’s also a former adviser at the Giffords, a gun control group. 

Since no Republicans were supporting the nomination, Chipman needed the support of all 50 Democrats. Sens. John Hickenlooper, Colo. and Jon Tester, Mont., were among at least two holdouts.

The National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation were putting up a fight to stop Chipman’s nomination and have spent more than $4 million in radio and TV ads in the home states of moderate Democrats and Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine.

Chipman’s nomination advanced from the Senate Judiciary Committee after a 10-10 vote in June. But since then, Democrats have not scheduled a confirmation vote because they weren’t sure if Chipman had enough support. 

Without a permanent ATF leader, the Biden administration will likely have a more difficult time pushing forward gun control measures. 

By Steve Neavling

President Biden is expected to nominate David Chipman, a prominent gun control advocate, to lead the ATF, The New York Times reports.

Biden’s pick, David Chipman, is a gun owner, former ATF agent and senior policy adviser at Giffords, a gun control advocacy group led by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Chipman has advocated for gun restrictions, including a ban on assault weapons. 

Biden is expected to announce his nomination today. 

Biden has faced pressure by gun control groups to pick someone to head the ATF, which has been without a permanent director since 2015 as the nation continues to grapple with mass shootings. 

As vice president, Biden recommended in 2013 that President Obama pick a Senate-confirmed ATF director. Obama followed through with the confirmation of B. Todd Jones in 2013, but Jones resigned in 2015, and the agency has been without a permanent director since. 

The current acting director, appointed by President Trump, is Regina Lombardo. 

Whether Biden can muster the 51 votes required to confirm a permanent leader is an open question. Republicans have blocked ATF candidates who were far friendlier to the pro-gun base. 

File photo of guns, via ATF

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

President Trump, in a significant departure from his uncompromising, pro-NRA stance on guns, is directing the Justice Department to propose regulations to “ban all devices” such as the bump stocks used in the Las Vegas mass shooting.

Under intense pressure to address the alarming proliferation of mass shooters using assault-style rifles, Trump has indicated it’s time to move swiftly on guns designed to kill a lot of people.

“We must move past clichés and tired debates and focus on evidence based solutions and security measures that actually work,” Trump said during a White House ceremony.

The Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead at Majority Stoneman Douglas High School has placed on pressure on NRA-supporting Republicans to finally get tough on assault-style guns. They failed to act on a ban bump stocks last year.

Even the predominately conservative Florida state legislature, after many years of reluctance, is drafting legislation to reduce access to semiautomatic rifles.

“The Parkland shooting seems to be a change moment in terms of the way Republicans view gun control measures,” said Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Florida Republican lobbyist and operative.

On legislation drafted by state Senate President Bill Galvano, Stipanovich said, “None of these are necessarily earth-shaking, but all of them, at least in recent times, are unprecedented in the Florida Legislature.”

Protests broke out across the country over Republicans’ failure to address gun control.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

President Obama is expected to announce a long-awaited executive action on gun control this week in his final year as president, Politico reports. 

The White House said the measures would curb gun violence.

Citing people familiar with the proposals, Obama would require more small-scale gun sellers to be licensed, making them subject to background checks.

Obama also wants to tighten rules for reporting stolen or lost guns.

Obama proposed even stiffer gun regulations but Congress was unlikely to approve any new curbs on firearms.

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By Editorial Board
Capital-Journal

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence issued a report to support the contention 90 percent of guns used in United States crimes could be traced to 5 percent of gun dealers.

To emphasize the point, the Washington, D.C., gun-control advocacy organization released a list of the 50 “most despicable” dealers among 3,000 bad apples in the business. The Kansas business on the roster was Shawnee Gun Shop Inc. Allegedly, 588 guns were traced to the store during a five-year period.

There is a glaring problem with the list touted by the Brady Center. It is horribly outdated. Gun traces involving Shawnee Gun Shop and noted by the Brady Center occurred from 1996 to 2000. The location of the store on Robinson Street in Johnson County is now home to a different entity: Bullet Hole Shooting Range.

The Brady Center can’t legitimately anchor policy advocacy on information so antiquated. It is not remotely fair.

The solution is for Congress and the president to repeal a federal law named for former U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt. The Kansas Republican authored the Tiahrt Amendment, which blocks public release of specific federal crime gun data under the Freedom of Information Act. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives performs traces on firearms at request of law enforcement agencies. The information has been beyond reach of anyone other than investigators or prosecutors involved in criminal inquiries since the early 2000s.

To read more click here. 

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The horrific shooting of two Virginia journalists while they were broadcasting live on the air prompted President Obama to renew calls for stricter gun control.

“This is another example of gun violence that is becoming all too common in communities large and small all across the United States,” the president’s press secretary, John Earnest, told reporters at his daily press briefing.

“While there is no piece of legislation that will end all violence in this country, there are some commonsense things that only Congress can do that we know would have a tangible impact in reducing gun violence in this country.”

Other politicians and Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton joined the call for tougher gun laws.

“We have got to do something about gun violence. And I will take it on,” Clinton said. “There are many people who face it and know it, but then turn away.”

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe also pledged to push for stronger gun control.

“I put it up again last year. It never sees the light of day,” McAuliffe, a Democrat, said during an interview with the Washington radio station WTOP. “Everyone who purchases a gun in the Commonwealth of Virginia should have to go through a background check. You go into the store, you hand your license over. It doesn’t take … but three, four, maybe five minutes maximum.”

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Todd Jones

Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones’s nomination to head the ATF has become mired in congressional politics, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Nearly six months after he was mentioned as a candidate, Jones is expected to face tough questions from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I am looking forward to meeting with the committee and answering all their questions,” Jones told the Star Tribune.

Republicans say they are concerned about his leadership as a temporary ATF head and his positions on gun-control.

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 Steve Neavling

A pregnant Texas actress is accused of sending ricin-tainted letters to President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and falsely accusing her husband of sending them, Fox News reports.

During interviews with the FBI, Shannon Guess Richardson, 35, accused her husband of sending the letters and then later claimed he “made her” do it,” Fox News wrote.

Richardson faces up to 10 years in prison on a charge of mailing a threatening communication to the president.

The letters threaten violence against gun-control advocates.