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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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To: gundog
"What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?"

21 posted on 04/18/2023 2:17:36 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: john316

I thought it was 32 ft/sec/sec. What are meters?


22 posted on 04/18/2023 2:20:17 PM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: george76

“I, unlike you, am not a firearms expert”

and that’s a fact.


23 posted on 04/18/2023 2:20:18 PM PDT by fretzer
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To: gundog

Brilliant response on your part. Well done!!


24 posted on 04/18/2023 2:21:04 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: george76

Assault weapon definition: A weapon used to assault a person or persons. Example: I was assaulted by an assailant who was using a fill in blank,________rock, club, knife, broken bottle, revolver, shotgun, rifle, black jack, brass knuckles, sword, baseball bat, axe, hammer, or a large dildo.


25 posted on 04/18/2023 2:21:11 PM PDT by Clarancebeaks
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To: george76

Typical government lifer lawyer...Ask a question and he dances, ducks, and evades....

Over and over....and over..


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

It just chaps me sometimes, that a group of people (the political and social Left)
can be SO WRONG about EVERYTHING and get away with SO MUCH.
It’s SO FRUSTRATING….


27 posted on 04/18/2023 2:23:10 PM PDT by telescope115 (My feet are on the ground, and my head is in the stars. A Man, and proud of it!)
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To: george76
anything can be an assault weapon. A rock, a rifle, a handgun, a person's fist, a squirrel swung with enough velocity


28 posted on 04/18/2023 2:24:29 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: MeganC

somewhere along the line, any gun that doesn’t look like an old winchester is an assault weapon. they’re looking at style...not capability.


29 posted on 04/18/2023 2:24:51 PM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: BenLurkin

And a president that probably doesn’t know what day of the week it is, among everything else.


30 posted on 04/18/2023 2:26:17 PM PDT by telescope115 (My feet are on the ground, and my head is in the stars. A Man, and proud of it!)
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To: george76

What’s an assault weapon? Any weapon that assaults our delicate feelings.


31 posted on 04/18/2023 2:29:09 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: BenLurkin

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

Or trucks.

Or trains.

Or prison (but should).


32 posted on 04/18/2023 2:33:00 PM PDT by ro_dreaming (Who knew "Idiocracy", "1984", "Enemy of the State", and "Person of Interest" would be non-fiction?)
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To: telescope115

Of course, Biden’s also a lawyer turned career politician. Same old s**t. These are not the people who give honest, straightforward common sense responses. These are NOT people we want in leadership roles.

We want leaders and we get lawyers.


33 posted on 04/18/2023 2:34:09 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: george76

easy one, any normal weapon painted black

LMAO


34 posted on 04/18/2023 2:35:23 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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To: MeganC

Bingo. By not defining what an assault weapon is, they are free to define it as what ever they want it to be.

An E-tool is an effective assault weapon but has no firing capability.


35 posted on 04/18/2023 2:38:29 PM PDT by Texas resident (We are living through Barak's fundamental transformation)
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To: NorthMountain

fish rots from the head down.


36 posted on 04/18/2023 2:38:47 PM PDT by Texas resident (We are living through Barak's fundamental transformation)
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To: ConservativeInPA

This knucklehead is an expert on alcohol and tabacky!


37 posted on 04/18/2023 2:39:37 PM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: george76

Another Harvard lawyer with no life or work experience at all.

The Ivy’s are a laughingstock.


38 posted on 04/18/2023 2:40:21 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: george76

39 posted on 04/18/2023 2:40:27 PM PDT by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper)
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To: george76

They mean AR15s and their equivalents, because their owners are the impediment to their totalitarian plans.


40 posted on 04/18/2023 2:42:09 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie ("The News” is a fake narrative promulgated by the Deep State Uniparty to control you and enrich them)
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