Contributor News
Biden Pushes Gun Control, Names New ATF Director
President Joe Biden today in the White House Rose Garden announced his first actions aimed at reducing gun violence, including the following:
-
“Ghost guns” made at home from kits should be treated as firearms under the law
-
The Department of Justice should release an annual report on gun violence
-
Pistols modified with stabilizing braces should be treated the same as rifles
-
Congress should pass a national “red flag law” to remove guns from high-risk individuals
The president is asking the DOJ to propose federal rules to enforce the new regulations on so-called ghost guns and modified pistols.
“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment,” Biden argued. “These are phony arguments suggesting that these are Second Amendment rights at stake from what we’re talking about.”
He continued, “But no amendment to the Constitution is absolute… From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons. So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution.”
“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic and it’s an international embarrassment… It’s time to put these laws on the books and protect even more people,” Biden concluded.
The president also named David Chipman as the new Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), drawing the ire of gun interest groups like Gun Owners of America (GOA), the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR).
GOA Vice President Erich Pratt told Fox News that GOA is “shocked at the brazen decision to nominate a registered anti-gun lobbyist to be director of the [ATF]… Joe Biden knows he cannot beat gun owners in Congress. Instead, he’s circumventing the legislative process to impose his own tyrannical [policies] by executive fiat.”
“The NRA will fight this nomination and ill-conceived executive actions,” said NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter.
NAGR President Dudley Brown also spoke out saying, “David Chipman has been on the leading edge of ATF scandals for decades, all the way back to Waco – and now he shills for gun confiscation with Gun Control Inc. Chipman has embraced every hair-brained gun control scheme proposed, so of course Biden and Harris chose him – he’ll fit right in with their corrupt administration.”
Watch a portion of President Biden’s remarks below: