Reaction & Commentary
And not at the expense of your time please senator in the last congress on the following occasions we had one court nominee followed by a second panel with five nominees judicial and executive nominees october 4th 2017 december 13 2017 may 9 2018 june 6 2018 august 22nd 2018 october 17 2018 may 22
2019 december 4th 2019. these panels included lifetime appointees and as you can see in eight different occasions under republican leadership they had exactly the same format as today no time like the president to change our ways and since as a new member of the committee i’m observing that i don’t
Think that we should have four important executive branch nominees in front of us at a time but thank you mr chipman you testified to senator lee that it’s a serious felony to lie on a background check application i agree uh the atf forum 4473 asks are you
Unlawful user of or addicted to any drug or uncontrolled substance if an applicant checks yes they cannot purchase a firearm on march 25th politico reported that hunter biden president biden’s son applied for a handgun that was later thrown in the trash and had to be recovered by secret service agents in 2018.
Reported that hunter biden completed this background check and answered no to the question of whether he was an unlawful user of or addicted to any drug hunter biden has since published a book and gone on a nationwide book tour conducting numerous interviews stating that he was in fact
Very much addicted to drugs at the same time that he purchased this firearm this would mean that by his own admission hunter biden lied on that form and by your earlier testimony committed a serious felony should hunter biden be prosecuted for breaking this law senator uh thank you for your question
Um if i’m confirmed as atf director it will be my responsibility to enforce all federal laws without political favor i do not know any factors in this particular case but i am familiar with uh with the press account of it well my understanding is the statute of limitation is only
Five years and that this happened in 2018 mr biden is obligated to keep a record of that form for up to five years himself so this should be a fairly easy case to investigate can i get your commitment that if you are confirmed you will in fact look into this matter
And refer it for prosecution if you find that hunter biden violated the law senator um what i will assure you is that if atf director i will ensure that all violations of law are investigated and referred i’m not sure that it has not been investigated
Well i hope it has and if the facts are as clear-cut as they appear to be based on mr biden’s own admission i would expect to see criminal charges forthcoming but i would say that when a case is as high profile as this if there is not an answer for the
American people and public it severely undermines the confidence in our gun gun laws as well as the atf and the department of justice if there are not criminal consequences i want to turn to a second matter now mr shipman you have called for an assault weapons man i have a simple question for
You what is an assault weapon senator an assault weapon would be in the context of the question you asked what congress defines it as so you’re asking us to ban assault weapons we have to write legislation can you tell me what is an assault weapon how would you
Define it if you were the chair the head of the atf how have you defined it over the last several years uh is your role as a gun control advocate um senator um if i’m confirmed as atf director um you know my recollection is the only um
Process but by which atf is weighed in is i know there’s a demand letter three program which requires multiple reports multiple sale reports on the southwestern border an atf in that program has defined an assault rifle as any semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine above the caliber of 22 which
Would include a 2-2-3 which is you know largely the ar-15 round so you believe that every weapon that takes a detachable magazine that can take a 22-round or 556 in the military parliament should be defined as an assault weapon let me clarify uh what i believe i just said is any semi-automatic
Rifle um okay any semi-automatic rifle um what that’s the definition a detachable magazine that takes a 556 or 22 round should be defined as an assault weapon senator um you asked me um if atf had used this term and i was sharing with you my knowledge
Of a program in which atf has defined this term and it is in the demand letter 3 program and that rifle is a semi-automatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine with a round greater than a 22 caliber and in those cases firearms dealers on the southwest border
Are required to make a multiple sale report to atf i i’m i’m amazed that that might be the definition of assault weapon that would basically cover every single modern sporting rifle in america today um let me put it this way if i wanted to buy an assault weapon and i walked
Into walmart or cabela’s or some other firearm dealers and i looked up on the wall where they were labeling their weapons would there be a label on the wall for assault weapon i don’t believe um senator and thank you for this question that the firearms industry has used the term
Assault rifle in their marketing um since there was a ban on it uh it was after that that they changed uh their use of the term assault rifle to the modern sporting rifle well so i’ve been in walmart’s and i’ve been in cabela’s and i’ve seen that you can find sections for
For pistols or handguns or for shotguns or for rifles because those are actual kinds of firearms 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 Thank you senator senatorono thank you ms
