Republican lawmakers in Arizona are calling on Democrat U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, who represents the Grand Canyon State, to recuse himself from an upcoming confirmation vote for ATF director nominee David Chipman.
"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 semi-automatic rifles and the imposition of ruinous legal liability on firearm-related companies," an official proclamation, sponsored by Arizona State Representative Quang Nguyen, states. "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."
"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," the proclamation continues. "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."
Chipman testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month and openly stated he supports a ban on the most popular sporting rifle in the U.S. Further, Chipman offered an extremely broad definition of "assault rifle."
Senator @TomCottonAR: "What is an 'assault weapon?'"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 26, 2021
Chipman: "...any semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine above the caliber of .22, which would include the .223 which is largely the AR-15 round." pic.twitter.com/JFPAZliFLf