President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was stumped during his confirmation hearing when he was asked to define an “assault weapon.”
“I got 35 seconds left, define it for me, would you please, sir. What’s an assault weapon?” Sen. John Kennedy asked ATF nominee David Chipman on Wednesday.
“There’s no way I could define an assault weapon,” Chipman said.
“I’ll give you one definition that ATF currently uses” Chipman continued, as Kennedy interjected that he wanted Chipman’s personal definition.
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“I’m done, Mr. Chairman. I don’t think I’m gonna get an answer,” Kennedy concluded.
.@SenJohnKennedy gave ATF nominee David Chipman multiple opportunities to define ‘assault weapons.’
“You’re going to be running this agency and you don’t have a definition of assault weapons?! …
If you won’t answer my question, how can I vote for you?” pic.twitter.com/DQU4ARR3og
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 26, 2021
The exchange comes as Sen. Tom Cotton also grilled Chipman on “assault weapons” and whether stores would be required to use that specific phrasing to label guns on their shelves.
“I don’t believe, senator, and thank you for this question, that the firearms industry has used the term ‘assault rifle’ in their marketing since there was a ban on it,” Chipman told Cotton of labeling “assault weapons” in stores such as Cabela’s.
“I think our exchange here illustrates that there really is no such thing as an assault weapon. That is a term that was manufactured by liberal lawyers and pollsters in Washington to try to scare the American people into believing that the government should confiscate weapons that are wildly popular for millions of Americans to defend themselves and their families and their homes,” Cotton said.
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Chipman is a gun control advocate and two-decade veteran of the ATF and was selected by Biden to lead the agency last month.
“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic,” Biden said during the event where he announced Chipman’s nomination and also unveiled a series of gun control measures. “And it’s an international embarrassment. … Enough, enough, enough.”
