Mike Lee Hammers Biden ATF Nominee’s ‘Utterly Condescending Attitude’ Toward First Time Gun Owners

LEE: “I’d like to start with you. I believe Sen. Cornyn referred briefly to a statement that I independently found concerning, a statement that you posted on Reddit back in 2019 when you said, ‘While at ATF, I conducted studies involving people who failed background checks to determine how many later committed crimes with a gun. Many did. This is a perfect opportunity to arrest people before committing crimes rather than responding after the fact.’ I find this statement very troubling, especially troubling for someone who’s been nominated to serve as the ATF Director, because even setting aside the Second Amendment, even before you get to the Second Amendment, this violates our most fundamental rules of due process. Talking about a desire to arrest people before committing crimes, rather than after the fact. It’s not our criminal justice system works. And if that’s how you view people, that is concerning to me. Now, this is compounded by other comments you’ve made that to me reflect a certain degree of disdain toward gun owners and, in particular, new gun owners. On April 3rd of 2020, just over a year ago, you gave an interview with Cheddar News, and you were talking about increases in gun sales, especially first-time gun owners who had decided to purchase a gun for the first time during the pandemic. In the interview you openly mocked first-time gun owners saying that they were, quote, more like Tiger King, and then advising them, in quite a mockery, to hide their gun, quote, behind the cans of tuna and beef jerky they have stored in a cabinet and only bring that out if the zombies start to appear, close quote. When I first saw this, I watched the clip and I read the clip several times, hoping that I was missing context, hoping that there was something else there that would make this less troubling. It concerns me that you, as the nominated to be the Director of the ATF, would have such a flippant and, if I may say so, utterly condescending attitude toward first-time gun owners in this country. I say this is a former federal prosecutor, one who worked with ATF agents and agents from many other agencies. This is a troubling, flippant attitude for somebody’s who going to head this agency. Now, you may find it interesting to learn that a survey of federal firearms licensees conducted by The National Shooting Sports Foundation shows that retailers supported the highest average percent increase in sales to black Americans during the first half of 2020, with large increases also to women and to Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans as well. So why would you chose to insult so many of your fellow Americans with a statement like this based on the fact that they purchased a gun?”

CHIPMAN: “Senator, I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address both of these comments that I believe were misunderstood and taken out of context. I’ll start with the first,. When I was talking about the prosecution of people who had lied and tried to buy a gun, clearly those people who lie and try have committed a serious federal, felony. And what I suggested is if we did research, we could determine which of those people were most likely to later commit some violent crime. And I do believe it would be ATF’s mission, that of prosecutors, to prosecute those people who committed a serious federal felony before, you know, striking gain and killing someone. With respect to the other quote, I’ll just say —“

LEE: “Are you saying that you — what you in fact meant was before committing other crimes and after committing a predicate crime? Is that what you’re telling me that you meant when you said, ‘This is a perfect opportunity to arrest people before committing crimes rather than responding after the fact?’ Is that what you meant?”

CHIPMAN: “Senator, thank you for the question and thank you for the opportunity to clarify. What I said was that I think that in certain circumstances it is absolutely the mission of ATF to arrest people for lying on a federal firearms form, a 5-year felony.”

LEE: “Right, because that’s a crime. That is a crime.”

CHIPMAN: “And it’s the one I was speaking about in the quote that you were saying, sir.”

LEE: “Okay, but you said before committing crimes.”

CHIPMAN: “Before committing an additional violent crime, which is something I was seeing at ATF, that people would lie and try, and then go through other means, acquire a gun and hurt someone.”

LEE: “Okay, so that — that statement was sort of in invisible brackets? Is that what you mean? Or is that just what you’re saying that you meant?”

CHIPMAN: “At the time, I did my best to communicate. And clearly, as exampled here, I felt short. I will try to do better.”

LEE: “Okay, how about the other statement?”

CHIPMAN: “With regards to the comments that I made on Cheddar, that was a lengthy interview. What I was trying to use is self-depreciating humor. The person who had a gun stored behind his tuna and beef jerky was me, and I was saying that all of us were acting in new ways as a response to Covid, and I thought that people should be very clear that when they bring a gun in their home, they need to be properly trained. So again, we have oftentimes the ability to talk to the media. Sometimes that’s taken out of context and I’m sorry for any confusion I made when I was trying to point out the fact that sometimes bringing a gun into your home, if you’re untrained, is a particularly dangerous thing to do.”