In June, a legislative proclamation sponsored by State Rep. Quang Nguyen called on Senator Mark Kelly to recuse himself from a vote on the confirmation of David Chipman, to serve as the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Since then, Chipman and Kelly have been haunted by the nominees’ checkered career.
Chipman works for Kelly and his wife, Gabby Giffords’ anti-gun organization.
From accusations of racism to his mother-in-law’s homophobia, the appointment of Chipman has been mired in controversy.
The controversy has gotten so bad in fact, that his wife, Tara, took retirement in July from her division chief job in the ATF’s public affairs office. Tara, the daughter of former Arizona State Sen. Olivia Cajero-Bedford offered her resignation after she was called out on social media for what the “massive conflict of interest” that would exist if her husband was appointed to the job.
Cajero-Bedford, a close associate of radical Congressman Raul Grijalva, proposed a ban on the bump stock devices during her tenure. However, it was her homophobia that got her in the end. As previously reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, in 2014 Cajero-Bedford said she was just kidding when she questioned then Sen. Steve Gallardo’s candidness about his homosexuality.
Cajero-Bedford was blasted by Tucson activist, Sal Baldenegro for her “homophobic remarks,” that Gallardo should “act more gay.”
In his piece, The Media Refuse to Cover the Allegations against David Chipman, David Harsanyi, addresses the controversy surrounding Chipman’s career.
“The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski seems to be the only journalist interested in digging into Chipman’s history,” writes Harsanyi. “And he’s uncovered multiple ATF sources that corroborated the existence of a complaint alleging that Chipman made racist remarks to his coworkers – saying that African Americans needed to cheat to pass promotion assessments. Now, a former black ATF agent tells Gutowski that Chipman baselessly accused him personally of cheating, as well. Chipman has admitted that a complaint exists, though not what is in it.”
As more information eked out about Chipman in May, Kelley and Giffords’ organization Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund announced it would be spending $150,000 to run television and social media ads in support of Chipman’s nomination.
A vote on Chipman soon is unlikely. According to CNN, “President Joe Biden’s pick of David Chipman to serve as the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is nearing collapse, with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus withholding support and the chamber unlikely to hold a vote to advance the nomination before the August recess.”
Arizona State Resolution:
Whereas, the State of Arizona has a rich history of protecting and supporting the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which protects the individual right of the people to keep and bear arms; and
Whereas, Arizona has a long tradition of firearms ownership and is home to a robust community of world-class firearms businesses and training programs that continue to grow stronger each year; and
Whereas, President Joe Biden has nominated David Chipman to serve as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also known as the ATF; and
Whereas, David Chipman has had an extensive career of working with organizations whose mission is to erode the Second Amendment and criminalize law-abiding Americans; and
Whereas, David Chipman currently works as a Senior Policy Advisor at Giffords, a gun control pressure group, founded by U.S. Senator Mark Kelly and his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, to aggressively advocate for radical action, including a ban on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles and the imposition of ruinous legal liability on firearm-related companies; and
Whereas, starting in 2012, David Chipman began working for Mayors Against Illegal Guns (later a component of Everytown For Gun Safety), an extremist anti-firearms organization bankrolled by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, whose aim is to put up every barrier possible to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional right to firearm ownership and use; and
Whereas, the founding of the United States did not begin with the federal government, but rather with the states themselves; and
Whereas, an agency of the federal government should never seek to expand the mission of an administrative state, much less seek to eliminate the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights;
Therefore, I, Representative Quang Nguyen, invite members of the Arizona House of Representatives, to:
Oppose the confirmation of David Chipman as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Chipman has established by his long career in anti-gun advocacy and lobbying that he is an ideologue for his radical cause and will not serve to uphold the Constitutional rights of Americans while in this office, but rather to erase rights to fit the radical gun control agenda of the groups he still works for and associates with to this day.
Demand U.S. Senator Mark Kelly recuse himself from a confirmation vote. Chipman’s current employment at Giffords, an organization co-founded by Senator Kelly, raises serious ethical questions regarding this vote and presents a clear and credible conflict of interest that puts the constitutional rights of Americans in jeopardy.