WASHINGTON — President Biden is expected to nominate on Monday a former federal prosecutor from Ohio to run the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, administration officials said, part of a series of measures meant to demonstrate the White House’s modest progress on gun control.The moves, which include the completion of a rule banning online sales of “ghost guns” — untraceable firearms without serial numbers, assembled from components bought online — come as Mr. Biden faces intensifying pressure from gun control groups to revive a key element of his policy agenda that has been stymied in Congress.During a speech in the Rose Garden last spring, weeks after mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado, Mr. Biden declared the epidemic of firearms violence “an international embarrassment” and directed the Justice Department to curb the spread of privately manufactured guns that have fueled a surge in violent crime around the country.The White House plans to tap Steven M. Dettelbach, who served under President Obama as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, seven months after being forced to withdraw the nomination of Mr. Biden’s first choice, David Chipman, officials told reporters on Sunday.The A.T.F.’s completion of the long-awaited rule on ghost guns comes after months of sifting through a quarter-million public comments, but roughly two months earlier than the acting A.T.F. director had predicted in January. The rule is typically enacted 60 to 90 days after completion.Gun control activists, who have pressed Mr. Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to make the issue a top priority, expressed tempered support for the measures, while calling on the White House to establish an independent office on gun violence. Susan Rice, Mr. Biden’s domestic policy adviser, opposes such a move — but strongly supported Mr. Dettelbach’s selection, according to people close to the process.“I’m happy to see President Biden respond to pressure from survivors of gun violence, but over 54,000 Americans have died from guns since President Biden was inaugurated,” said Igor Volsky, the executive director of Guns Down America, whose organization began staging protests in front of the White House.Guns and Gun Control in the U.S.
The Children's Gun Crisis: More kids are becoming both victims and shooters, as pandemic trauma and a surge in gun purchases collide.Ominous Harbinger: The surge in gun violence showed no sign of easing with the arrival of spring, with several shootings in one single weekend.A Landmark Case: The Supreme Court is poised to issue its first major Second Amendment ruling in more than a decade — and the implications could be enormous.Suing Gun Makers: Remingtom’s settlement with Sandy Hook families shows how a federal law shielding the gun industry from litigation can be circumvented.“He’s still ignoring calls to establish a White House office of gun violence prevention,” Mr. Volsky added. “That is entirely unacceptable.”White House officials, frustrated by their inability to pass even minimal changes to gun laws in a Congress narrowly controlled by Democrats, say they have acted more forcefully than Mr. Biden’s recent predecessors. They point to their decision to offer up a second nominee to A.T.F. instead of leaving a career official in charge — after acknowledging that they had mishandled Mr. Chipman’s nomination — as proof of their commitment.Mr. Chipman, a fiery former bureau agent who had vowed to take on the gun lobby, stepped aside in September after Senator Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, expressed opposition to Mr. Chipman following a pressure campaign from gun owners in his state and national groups.Mr. Dettelbach, who served from 2009 to 2016 as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, which includes Cleveland, Toledo and Akron, seems to be a less polarizing figure. He is known for criminal prosecutions, hate crime cases and voting rights investigations.In early 2021, he said he was “interested” in leaving his post at a white-shoe law firm to reclaim his old job. Officials in the Biden administration also discussed whether Mr. Dettelbach should oversee the Justice Department’s civil division, which defends administration policies in court, according to people familiar with the discussions. Mr. Dettelbach, a Democrat, has never run a national law enforcement organization and has never worked at the A.T.F. Rank-and-file agents respect and like the agency’s acting head, Marvin Richardson, according to multiple people who work with the bureau.If confirmed, Mr. Dettelbach would become only the second permanent director in the past 15 years of the A.T.F., an undersized and underfunded agency hamstrung by the gun lobby and congressional Republicans.By: Glenn Thrush and Katie Benner
Title: Biden Expected to Name Former Federal Prosecutor as A.T.F. Director
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/us/politics/biden-atf-steven-dettelbach.html
Published Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2022 09:00:18 +0000
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