Joe Biden is heading to Buffalo, New York today to meet with law enforcement, local politicians, and families of the victims of Saturday’s mass murder, but the president will also likely use the trip as an opportunity to press his gun control agenda; repeating his demands for Congress to vote on his proposed ban on modern sporting rifles, talking up the ATF’s proposed rule on unfinished frames and receivers, and urging the Senate to confirm anti-gun politician Steve Dettelbach as permanent director of the ATF.
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According to POLITICO, the White House is already “significantly stepping up its push” to confirm Dettelbach and using the shooting in Buffalo to try to motivate the Senate to swiftly confirm Biden’s second choice for the top job at the agency. Several Senate Democrats are lending a hand in the lobbying efforts as well.
While fulsome rebukes to Dettelbach may still materialize, the nomination has so far been marked by a notable, if surprising, lack of coordinated opposition. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry trade association that played a major role in torpedoing Chipman’s nomination, has so far not engaged nearly as aggressively on Dettelbach’s. But the group indicated that it was preparing to weigh in around his first hearing.
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Gun control groups like Everytown for Gun Safety are also pushing the line that Dettelbach should be confirmed because of his experience “taking on domestic extremism” when he was a U.S. Attorney in Ohio, though the same could be said of almost every person who’s ever served as a U.S. Attorney, simply given the nature of that position. No, the real reason why the gun control lobby is so intent on getting Dettelbach confirmed is that he’s one of them, as indicated by Everytown’s glowing endorsement of Dettelbach’s campaign to become Ohio Attorney General in 2018. Even in a blue wave election Dettelbach couldn’t win a majority of votes in that race, ultimately losing to current AG Dave Yost by nearly five points. Having failed to install a gun control lobbyist as permanent director of the ATF, Everytown and other anti-gun groups have settled on putting a failed anti-gun politician in that role instead.
While Dettelbach’s confirmation isn’t assured, it probably has the highest chance of success of any of Biden’s anti-gun legislative moves. With the filibuster intact, there’s not much chance of any new gun control bills getting to Biden’s desk, but that’s not stopping some anti-gun activists from demanding the Democrat use his bully pulpit to… push for background checks?
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“On issues they think are important — like abortion — they hold a vote to show voters they are fulfilling the promises they made. On this one [background checks and stronger gun laws], they didn’t,” said Igor Volsky, executive director of the advocacy group Guns Down America. “You have a key thing that underscores the need for reform and Biden and [Senate Majority leader Chuck] Schumer failed to lay out a vision to prevent this from happening again.”
How would universal background checks have prevented the Buffalo shooting? The suspect apparently passed a background check when he bought his rifle at an upstate New York gun shop (we’ll have another story on the outrage mob coming for the gun store owner later today) and wasn’t prohibited from owning a firearm despite a police investigation into alleged threats made at his high school last year because no charges were ever filed and a mental health evaluation did not result in an involuntary commitment.
Of course, facts like that have never mattered much to anti-gun activists who view high-profile shootings as an opportunity to advance their agenda regardless of any details that don’t fit their preferred narrative. And as much disappointment as Volsky feigned to POLITICO, I expect there’ll be no shortage of Democrats from Biden on down talking up the need for more gun control laws and a permanent ATF director in the days ahead. To paraphrase Rahm Emanuel, why let a tragedy go to waste when it’s there for the exploitation?
Cam Edwards has covered the 2nd Amendment for 20 years as a broadcast and online journalist, as well as serving on the board of directors for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He lives outside of Farmville, Virginia with his family, three dogs, two barn cats, a flock of chickens, and an undisclosed number of firearms for their protection.
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