Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, expected to launch a Senate bid, expressed support for President Joe Biden’s pick to head the ATF, a nomination drawing the ire of gun rights backers.
Lamb, whose win in a March 2018 special election in his Western Pennsylvania district foreshadowed the Democratic takeover of the House later that year, announced his support for David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
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“David Chipman is 25 year ATF veteran who knows how to take on the epidemic of gun violence in America. The NRA can talk all the nonsense they want,” Lamb tweeted Wednesday. “But the US will be safer — and 2nd amendment rights more secure — when he is confirmed as ATF Director. #ConfirmChipman.”
Chipman, who retired from the ATF in 2012 to become a gun control activist, saw his nomination deadlocked in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The 50-50 Senate breakdown between the parties requires Vice President Kamala Harris to cast tiebreaking votes. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is waiting on a handful of Democrats from gun-friendly states still making up their minds about Chipman.
Lamb, a former federal prosecutor, initially won his 17th Congressional District seat by half a point in a special election, then claiming he opposed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
The seat was fairly conservative and previously held by Republican Rep. Tim Murphy until he resigned in October 2017. In 2016, President Donald Trump won the district over Hillary Clinton with 49% of the vote compared to her 47%. In 2020, President Joe Biden beat Trump with 51% compared to the former president’s 48%.
A 2018 campaign ad showed Lamb wielding a semi-automatic long rifle with a voice-over saying he “still likes to shoot.” Several articles noted Lamb opposed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that was in place from 1994-2004.
In a 2018 debate with his first Republican opponent Rick Saccone, Lamb said of the ban, “I do not support that. I’ve been thinking about violent crime for a long time as a prosecutor, and most of the cases I saw were committed with handguns and by people who were already not allowed to have those firearms.”
He later added, “I think the problem of crime prevention is more complex than banning individual guns. I would like to see efforts done like those of senators [Pat] Toomey and [Joe] Manchin to close the loophole,” referencing the failed 2013 gun control amendment proposed by the Pennsylvania Republican and West Virginia Democrat.
However, Toomey told reporters Thursday he will not support Chipman’s nomination.
As for Lamb, his position on firearms shifted to the Left following his narrow win against Saccone. Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court decision to approve a new congressional district map after that election cycle made his district more competitive for Democrats.
Lamb finished Murphy’s term, and he defeated his Republican opponent by 13 points during the Democratic Party’s “blue wave” midterm election cycle in November 2018.
By April 8 of this year, Lamb released a statement on Twitter saying he supported Biden’s proposal to ban sales on “assault weapons.”
“Agree with @POTUS that we should ban future assault weapon sales. But also agree that universal background checks & Charleston loophole are the most effective things we can do right now to prevent ALL gun violence,” he said. “Bipartisan bills passed twice in House. Senate needs to act.”
Lamb won his 2020 reelection bid against Republican challenger Sean Parnell by a margin of just over 2 percentage points. During the campaign, Parnell accused Lamb of going back on his word regarding gun rights.
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Parnell already launched his own campaign bid for the soon-to-be-open Pennsylvania Senate seat in hopes of a rematch against Lamb, releasing a response to his former opponent’s declarative support for Chipman.
“David Chipman is anything but a moderate and the same can be said for his newest and biggest supporter, Conor Lamb,” Parnell said. “After years of promising Pennsylvanians that he supported the 2nd Amendment and would oppose any new gun laws, Lamb has flip-flopped and turned his back on the thousands of gun-owners in the Keystone State with his support for Chipman.”
