Biden using Buffalo shooting to push ATF nomination

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

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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