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Biden's ATF Director Was Asked to Define 'Assault Weapon' and It Didn't Go Well
Townhall ^ | April 18, 2023 | Spencer Brown

Posted on 04/18/2023 1:54:17 PM PDT by george76

Steve Dettelbach, the man President Biden chose to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), followed in the footsteps of other Biden administration officials who have been stumped by seemingly straightforward questions from lawmakers, questions that deal with subjects within what is supposed to be their purview.

On Tuesday, Director Dettelbach was asked by Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX) to give a brief, 15-second definition of the term "assault weapon," the thing President Biden and Democrats have demanded must be banned within the United States in order to reduce the frequency of crimes committed by individuals with guns. Dettelbach, however, came up completely empty during his testimony in the House Appropriations Committee's hearing focused on the ATF's FY2024 budget.

"I’ll go shorter than that because I, honestly, if Congress wishes to take that up, I think Congress would have to do the work, but we would be there to provide technical assistance," Dettelbach told Ellzey. Huh? So, the man in charge of ATF doesn't even have a guess when it comes to defining a firearm type that is mentioned and demonized almost daily by the White House?

"I, unlike you, am not a firearms expert, to the same extent as you maybe, but we have people at ATF who can talk about velocity of firearms, what damage different kinds of firearms cause, so that whatever determination you chose to make would be an informed one," Dettelbach added, confirming that President Biden had put forward another entirely unqualified person to lead a powerful wing of federal bureaucracy.

...

Biden, his administration, and Democrats in Congress have insisted that "assault weapons" be banned, even though the term is only a buzzword that Biden's own ATF director — and likely Biden himself — can't define. That's because anything can be an assault weapon. A rock, a rifle, a handgun, a person's fist, a squirrel swung with enough velocity.

But the lack of specificity of the term hasn't stopped Democrats from renewing their push to ban "assault weapons." Nor has the fact that the previous iteration of the ban on "assault weapons" did not — according to the federal Department of Justice and other left-of-center studies — cause a reduction in the number of gun crimes nor the lethality of those crimes. Biden claims to be the previous ban's mastermind, but it didn't work — no matter how many times the Biden administration claims the opposite is true.

...

So, the Biden administration is wrong about the efficacy of bans on "assault weapons," the Biden administration can't even define the term, and its ATF director is — by his own admission — lacking basic knowledge about firearms.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: assaultweapons; atf; banglist; biden; cardboardcutout; dettelbach; donatefreerepublic; stevedettelbach
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1 posted on 04/18/2023 1:54:17 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Another Biden official, another gibbering idiot.


2 posted on 04/18/2023 1:56:25 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: george76
...velocity of firearms...

Dropped, or thrown?

3 posted on 04/18/2023 1:57:44 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: george76

Congress came up with the assault weapon definition during the first “assault weapons” ban that did absolutely nothing.

What should be banned are idiots and mental cases... Course that covers the entire liberal left.


4 posted on 04/18/2023 1:58:10 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: george76

Any weapon which will protect you from tyranny.


5 posted on 04/18/2023 2:00:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: george76

An “assault weapon” is whatever they want to ban.


6 posted on 04/18/2023 2:00:41 PM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism. )
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To: george76
"But the lack of specificity of the term hasn't stopped Democrats from renewing their push to ban "assault weapons.""

If the Left were honest, the answer would be: "an assault weapon is anything that would prevent us from violating your rights, your property, your persons, and your children without fear of repercussions, but would be allowed to be wielded by ourselves and our ancillaries"

7 posted on 04/18/2023 2:01:15 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: george76

Ten Demoncrats ... I mean Democrats won’t define an assault weapon until they start confiscating all semiautomatic weapons which is what they really mean by assault weapon.


8 posted on 04/18/2023 2:02:21 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: george76

Steve Dettelbach, another McConnell gift to America.

Whadja get for that, Mitch? Another shipping contract for the wifey’s family?


9 posted on 04/18/2023 2:03:50 PM PDT by Regulator (It's fraud, Jim)
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To: george76
"I, unlike you, am not a firearms expert,

What the eff is he doing as the head of ATF then? Oh, he went to Dartmouth and Haaarvard. Another credentialed idiot that never built anything in his life.

10 posted on 04/18/2023 2:04:05 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA ("How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." )
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To: george76

If they can’t define a real word like “woman,” how can we expect them to define “assault weapon” . . .


11 posted on 04/18/2023 2:04:59 PM PDT by MCSETots
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To: george76

He doesn’t know his assault weapon from a hole in the ground.


12 posted on 04/18/2023 2:05:12 PM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: NorthMountain

It’s astonishing, isn’t.

A SCOTUS appointment who refuses to admit what a woman is.

An airports guy who doesn’t know the first thing about airport operations.

A surgeon general who is a man pretending to be a woman.

A nuclear administrator who doesn’t know if he’s a boy or a girl. (and steal’s women’s luggage)

A transportation secretary who doesn’t know anything about roads.

And now this.

Astonishing.


13 posted on 04/18/2023 2:05:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: gundog

.velocity of firearms...

I know the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8/m/s/s


14 posted on 04/18/2023 2:05:42 PM PDT by john316 (JOSHUA 24:15 ...choose you this day whom ye will serve...)
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To: george76

How about a woman? Can he tell us what a woman is?


15 posted on 04/18/2023 2:05:52 PM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most importan.t election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: MeganC

I agree. This admin is so bad, they trot this pencil pusher out there, knowing this question will be asked and they are not at all prepared for it.

Technically retarded.....liberalism does this to people, just like drugs


16 posted on 04/18/2023 2:06:38 PM PDT by SteelPSUGOP
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To: BenLurkin

In this case, it’s a bit of a trick question. Unlike “woman”, there is no objective, coherent definition of “assault weapon”. He can’t give one, because it doesn’t exist. The gibbering idiocy comes in when he can’t or won’t admit it.


17 posted on 04/18/2023 2:07:42 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: BenLurkin

Good answer.


18 posted on 04/18/2023 2:09:43 PM PDT by Track9 (You are far too inquisitive not to be seduced…)
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To: george76
Girl in a jacket
19 posted on 04/18/2023 2:10:17 PM PDT by fwdude (Society has been fully polarized now, and you have to decide on which pole you want to be found.)
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To: george76

Another GD professional government lawyer babbling..

This is what ya get from these types. Bull s**t double talk gibberish.


20 posted on 04/18/2023 2:16:21 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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