Democrat President Joe Biden officially pulled his nomination of David Chipman to be the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) on Monday after failing to gain enough support among Democrats to confirm him to the position.
Chipman held a variety of fringe views, including suggesting that he does not believe that the Secret Service needed to use guns, supporting banning semi-automatic rifles, telling first-time gun owners only to use their firearms “if the zombies start to appear,” stating that he was open to the idea of allowing some convicted felons have their gun rights restored, and using dubious claims about the Waco siege to push for gun control.
Chipman was also accused of being racist towards black ATF agents, allegedly stating that they could not have passed an exam to become an Assistant Special Agent in Charge without cheating, and allegedly hiding statements from lawmakers.
The administration had indicated last week that they would pull Chipman’s nomination after Chipman failed to garner enough support from Democrats to lead the ATF.
In May, numerous House lawmakers wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell opposing Chipman’s nomination, saying that Chipman’s “beliefs and hostile attitude toward the rights of gun owners are well known.”
“Throughout his career, David Chipman has made it no secret that he is an enemy of the 2nd Amendment,” the letter said. “In October 2018, Chipman argued in favor of subjecting all AR-15s and potentially all semi-automatic rifles to regulation under the National Firearms Act. As a former agent of the ATF, Chipman knows all too well that such action would effectively ban the most popular rifle in America as well as most other items regulated under the National Firearms Act.”
“Legal firearm ownership and integrity go hand-in-hand, and President Biden should not nominate anyone to lead the ATF who has repeatedly lied to further their own gun control agenda,” the letter continued. “As recently as 2019, Chipman was trying to mislead the public on the basic facts of firearm ownership. When discussing firearm suppressors, he claimed, ‘The gun does not sound gun-like. It takes the edge out of the tone … this is how I would describe it: It makes a gun sort of sound like a nail gun.’ This is widely known to be false.”
“When participating in an online ‘ask me anything’ forum discussion, Chipman published historical falsehoods to empower his advocacy for gun control,” the letter continued. “For instance, he stated, ‘At Waco, cult members used two .50 caliber Barretts to shoot down two Texas Air National Guard helicopters. Point, it is true we are fortunate they are not used in crime more often. The victims of drug lords in Mexico are not so lucky. America plays a role in fueling the violence south of the border.’ Needless to say, no helicopters were shot down at Waco. On the other hand, the Waco operation-in which Chipman had a role-resulted in the deaths of at least 76 people, including 25 children.”
The letter concluded by saying that Chipman was jeopardizing American’s constitutional rights and could possibly “reshape the landscape” of firearm ownership for generations, adding that he would “use every tool at his disposal to attack American gun owners.”
Dave Rubin: Vaccine Mandates Signal ‘Massive Threat’ to Religious Liberty
Conservative author and podcaster Dave Rubin sees President Joe Biden’s vaccination mandate as a “massive threat” to religious freedoms in the United States.
“It’s a massive threat and it’s an absolute assault on the Constitution of the United States of America,” Rubin told Faithwire during a phone interview Monday afternoon. “I think what we’ve learned in the last two years is they’re gonna just keep taking and taking and taking and taking until enough people say, ‘You cannot take anymore,’ and maybe it’ll be the faith community, which is under assault in a million different ways.”
”Maybe it’ll be the faith community that’ll finally say, ‘Enough is enough,’” he added.
Rubin’s comments come just days after Biden announced his administration is mandating all U.S.-based companies employing 100 people or more to insure all their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing. And just one day ahead of the president’s announcement, United Airlines announced it will be placing staffers previously granted religious exemptions from the inoculation on indefinite unpaid leave.
Companies like United are, in Rubin’s view, essentially firing their workers who have sincere religious reasons to forgo vaccination against the coronavirus.
“[They’re saying] your exemption due to your faith doesn’t count in this case for a disease that has a 99.9% recovery rate, especially if you’re otherwise healthy,” Rubin said.
He went on to note people need to “stand up” to these kinds of policies because Americans cannot survive on indefinite unpaid leave.
Rubin has been warning about the possibility of a federal vaccination mandate for quite some time. In fact, in late July, Rubin was censored by Twitter for writing, in part, that those on the left “want a federal vaccine mandate for vaccines which are clearly not working as promised just weeks ago,” a comment he made in reference to reports suggesting even those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are capable of spreading the virus.
“We’ve seen this time and time again,” Rubin said of his tweet, which has since been proven accurate. “Yesterday’s conspiracy theorists are today’s truth tellers. It was fairly obvious to me … that the federal vaccine mandate was coming. They had been hinting at it and the implication that it wasn’t coming seemed ridiculous to me.”
There have been concerns about threats to religious liberty ever since the beginning of the pandemic. In November of last year, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued the health crisis “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,” adding, “It pains me to say this, but, in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.”
At the height of the pandemic, churches and synagogues across the country were restricted from holding indoor worship services. A county in Rubin’s native California even banned singing and wind instruments from being played during church service livestreams.
California has been among the most restrictive states in the U.S., when it comes to pandemic regulations, which has, in part, led to the recall vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who routinely flouted the draconian measures he put in place.
Rubin, who voted “yes” on the recall effort and is supporting leading Republican candidate Larry Elder, said there is “unbelievable excitement” on the ground in California.
“That being said, the big question is can we trust the machines here in California to give us an honest count of the vote?” he said. “And I’m very worried about that, and I think, basically, everybody is.”
“There’s a shake in the faith in the system — there’s a crack in that system right now,” he continued. “And we need that faith, because the whole thing is based on the belief that this system is fair and ‘one person, one vote.’ I believe there’s a tremendous amount of support for Larry in the recall. That being said, there are a tremendous amount of Democrats in the state. But the fact that they’ve sent out [former President Barack] Obama doing an ad, and Biden showing up today and [Vice President] Kamala Harris last week — the entire Democratic machine is here to save Gavin Newsom, who nobody likes.”
The state’s recall election ends Tuesday, Sept. 14.