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Grassley expresses concern over ATF nominee following Texas shooting

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Amid new calls for gun control measures, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley reiterated concerns that President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is not sufficiently supportive of the Second Amendment.

Grassley, who is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments during confirmation hearings for Steven Dettelbach Wednesday, the day after a teenage shooter gunned down at least 19 children and two adults at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school.

Biden nominated Dettelbach to lead the ATF, which is the federal agency in charge of enforcing the nation’s gun laws. He withdrew his previous nominee to lead the agency amid similar pushback over gun control. The ATF has lacked a Senate-confirmed director for the last seven years.


Grassley said Wednesday he wrote a letter to Biden in April outlining his concerns about Dettelbach, and "my concerns remain."

In that letter, Grassley noted that Dettelbach had advocated for universal background checks and bans on assault-style weapons while being endorsed by groups that favor gun control laws.

"The Senate will consider Mr. Dettelbach’s nominations in due course," Grassley wrote in the letter. "However, publicly available information tells us that Mr. Dettelbach is yet another gun control advocate being put forward for a position that requires respect for the Second Amendment."


The hearings have drawn heightened attention as the nation mourns the deaths in Texas and as Biden has renewed his calls for action on gun control.

"As a nation we have to ask ourselves, ‘when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby,’" he said during remarks Tuesday night.

In a call with reporters Wednesday, Grassley again urged support for legislation he's introduced called the EAGLES Act.

That bill — named for the mascot of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a former student killed 17 people in 2018 — would direct the Secret Service to work with schools to help recognize warning signs in teenagers to prevent school violence.

"It would help us proactively identify and manage these threats before they occur," Grassley said.

But he stopped short of fully embracing other proposals, including so-called red flag laws. Those laws typically allow family members or law enforcement to limit a person's access to firearms if they are deemed a potential threat to the public, and they have drawn bipartisan support in Congress.

Grassley said he's willing to look at red flag laws, but would weigh them heavily against constitutional concerns.

"I'll have to just look at the legislation at that point," he said. "But it's got to meet the constitutional test of due process."

He voted previously to block passage of H.R. 8, a bill that would have expanded background checks. He offered his own alternative, which was also blocked.

 
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In the wake of a Texas school shooting that has claimed at least 21 lives, Iowa’s U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is calling for expanding the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center with a greater focus on school violence prevention.


“We've got to keep our schools safe. We can't waste another day,” the Iowa Republican told reporters Wednesday.


Grassley made his remarks in response to an 18-year-old gunman barricading himself in an Uvalde, Texas, classroom and killing at least 19 children and two teachers.


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The Secret Service conducts threat assessments in other areas, Grassley said, and his Eagles Act would expand its role to include school violence prevention. The bill is named for the mascot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., site of another mass shooting in February 2018.


The legislation, which Grassley reintroduced earlier this year with bipartisan support and the backing of 40 state attorneys general, would proactively mitigate threats of violence on school campuses by reauthorizing and expanding the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center.


The center studies targeted violence and develops best practices and training to identify and manage threats before they result in violence.


The bill would establish a national program on school violence prevention that will include expanded research. It also would allow the Secret Service to equip communities and schools with training and best practices on recognizing and preventing school violence.


“It would help us proactively identify and manage these threats before they occur,” said Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.


Sioux City state Sen. Jim Carlin, who is running against Grassley in the June 7 primary, tweeted: “Our hearts break for the families of those whose lives were lost in the senseless shooting in Texas earlier today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them.”


Dems respond​


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Democrats hoping to run against Grassley, who is seeking re-election, say he’s waited too long to take action.


“How many gunshot corpses does it take for you to vote for responsible firearm ownership legislation?” Sioux City Democratic Mike Franken asked Grassley on social media. “The voters are waiting for a number …”


Former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer of Cedar Rapids said the slayings left her heartbroken.


“But, folks, I am pissed off,” she said in a campaign appearance Tuesday evening.


Finkenauer recalled being 10 years old at the time of the Columbine school shooting in 1999 when Grassley had been in Washington 23 years.


“Sen. Grassley has sat there another 24 years in Washington, D.C., … and hasn't done a dang thing to stop it,” she said. “He has changed nothing. He has done nothing.”


A third Democratic candidate, Glenn Hurst of Minden, called for new hate crime laws and "common sense gun laws," such as banning assault weapons and limiting access to ammunition. He made his comments during a recent debate when asked about a shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., that claimed 10 lives.
 
Weird. Seems that everyone is onboard with regulation of alcohol and tobacco….but heaven forbid there’s any proposed common sense regulation of firearms.

2nd Amendment even uses the term “well regulated” and everyone conveniently ignores that and moves right on to “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms…”
 
ATF nominee might be against children being slaughtered in schools so better vote no.
Typical conservative. Force women to carry every amalgamation of cells to term, but then let the kid get slaughtered at school, or underfund educational and nutritional programs.
 
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