GAIL COLLINS GOES GREEN LANTERNIST ON GUNS

We're seeing a rise in the use of "ghost guns" -- guns with no serial numbers that are made from kits or printed on 3D printers -- and Gail Collins concludes that this is all President Biden's fault:

Mark this on your April calendar: Joe Biden does something about ghost guns.

OK, just sort of. But let’s be thankful for a start.

April is when we've been told to expect a new rule on ghost guns from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Collins blames Biden for the fact that this is taking so long, and barely acknowledges the other responsible parties.

And how’s Biden, who clearly sees himself as a champion of gun safety regulation, doing? “It depends on what your expectations were,” [Connecticut senator Richard] Blumenthal said, carefully. While many anti-gun activists say they’ve been disappointed, Blumenthal still has a lot of hope. “He’s more passionate and determined than any president in my memory,” the senator said....

Biden’s been consistent, if not always successful. His first attempt to name a director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives imploded when the Second Amendment lobby managed to torpedo the nomination of gun control activist David Chipman last year. “Either this was impossible to win or the strategy failed,” Chipman said afterward — an analysis that could be used for many, many administration encounters with the United States Senate.

Maybe Biden shouldn't have imagined that he could win approval for an ATF director who works for the Giffords gun control organization -- but let's not overlook the automatic opposition of every Republican in the Senate, which Collins implies is somehow Biden's fault. And let's also put some of the blame on members of the Senate Democratic caucus:

... several Democrats from states with high gun ownership signaled to the White House they were uncomfortable with Chipman serving as the nation’s top weapons regulator.

Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona were undecided on Chipman. At the same time, Maine’s Angus King, an independent who votes with the Democrats, told the White House he was a likely “no.”

The gun lobby also played dirty, as usual:

Mr. Chipman placed most of the blame for his defeat on the gun lobby, in particular the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group that lobbied Mr. King and others.

And he singled out Lawrence G. Keane, a top executive at the group, for posting a picture on its website showing a federal agent — falsely identified in a tabloid article as a young Mr. Chipman — standing in the smoldering debris of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, which he said prompted a spate of online threats.

“Larry Keane put up a photo of me that he knew was false, trying to get me killed,” said Mr. Chipman, who arrived in Waco, Texas, to assist in the investigation long after the A.T.F. had begun an assault that eventually resulted in the deaths of 82 civilians and four federal agents.

Keane feels terrible about this unfortunate mistake.

Mr. Keane, in a phone interview, called the accusation “categorically false,” adding that “the moment we found out that it was in fact not him, we pulled it from our website. If I had known it wasn’t him, we would never have used the photograph.”

Although Keene also blames the victim for all the death threats, because how dare Chipman show his face in public when he believes what he believes about guns.

He acknowledged that Mr. Chipman was the subject of death threats, which he called “extremely unfortunate and uncalled-for.” But he said Mr. Biden never should have nominated someone as belligerent to gun owners, manufacturers and dealers as Mr. Chipman.

Did the Biden administration handle this well? Okay, not really.

Mr. Chipman lauded the dedication of the Justice Department team, but said his attempts to get them to send reporters documents debunking the Waco claim failed — and he finally had to give journalists the information himself after concluding “no one’s defending me.”

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said that they quietly countered negative stories about Mr. Chipman, but believed the under-the-radar media strategy was the wisest course.

This is the classic Biden administration mistake -- believing that quiet diplomacy works with radical zealots -- but at least some of the blame ought to fall on the radical zealots themselves.

Collins continues:

But Biden, who’s still without a permanent A.T.F. director, did direct the Department of Justice to help stop ghost gun proliferation. That was a year ago. The department complied rather quickly, opening the new rules for comment last May. Public comment closed in August and then ....

Well, here we are. Waiting for word.

Biden also requested a ton of money for the A.T.F. in his budget — presuming the budget gets passed and there’s a new director who’ll know how to spend it.

May I point out here that losing a battle to get an ATF head approved is not a uniquely Bidenesque failure?

For the most part, the bureau has been operating under acting directors since Congress changed the position into an executive branch appointment that requires Senate approval in 2006.

The Senate has confirmed only one ATF director, approving Barack Obama’s acting director, B. Todd Jones, in a 53-42 vote in 2013.

President Donald Trump was forced to withdraw his ATF nominee, former Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury, after GOP senators refused to provide the votes to advance him out of committee. Republicans cited concerns that Canterbury’s support of the Second Amendment was weak.

Collins concludes, glibly:

So how’s the president doing? Feel free to vote:

A. Ghost guns! Hey, he’s got a start.

B. Ghost guns! Good grief, is that all he’s done?

C. Well, as long as he delivers before the Easter Egg Roll.

Biden has struggled. He's made strategic miscalculations. There's no question about that.

But the belief that Biden could have turned all this around if he'd just set his mind to it is pure Green Lanternism -- "the belief that the president can achieve any political or policy objective if only he tries hard enough or uses the right tactics." The gun lobby has near-total control over firearms policy in America. It acts in a singularly thuggish way. Its wishes are every Republican's command --yes, even the "good" ones -- and it has a few Democrats on a short leash as well. If we couldn't change the balance of power against these sleazebags after Sandy Hook and Parkland, then we have a lot of gall expecting Joe Biden to do significantly better.