Biden Withdraws David Chipman's Nomination for ATF Director

Following several months of public outcry in opposition to President Biden's nomination of David Chipman as ATF director, the White House has finally announced that they are withdrawing his nomination. David Chipman will not be the next ATF director.

After a contentious Senate confirmation hearing, Chipman was referred out of the Judiciary Committee on an 11-11 split vote back on June 24, marking the first real portent of the Biden nominee's inevitable failure. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delayed bringing Chipman's nomination to the floor, struggling to whip the votes needed to confirm Chipman in a Senate divided 50-50 along deep partisan lines.

All eyes turned to the Senate's two centrist Republicans, two conservative Democrats, and its single left-leaning Independent, who together would determine Chipman's success or demise. Republican Susan Collins from Maine was the first to break, signaling her lack of support for Chipman, and Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania signaled the same a few days later. That left the two Democrats and the Independent, and the possibility that Kamala Harris would have to make an historic vice-presidential tie breaker.

Then just last week, Independent Angus King of Maine indicated that he wouldn't support Chipman either. With that, Democrats could do no better than 49 votes, fortunately sealing the fate of David Chipman's nomination.

The pushback on Chipman was tremendous, and justifiably so given his gross anti-gun activist attitudes. His defeat marks a tremendous effort by gun owners and the gun industry. Rarely do we see the banding together of forces by pro-gun, pro-freedom Americans and businesses as we have seen in response to Chipman and the ATF's pending anti-gun rules changes.

That said, this is only a temporary victory and gun owners need to stay vigilant. Biden will eventually nominate another dangerous candidate, and we still have yet to see the outcome of the ATF's recently proposed rules changes, which would significantly impact our freedoms.

This fight isn't over. Stay tuned to Brownells' 2A Action Center for future updates.