President Biden announced Thursday that he will appoint a longtime veteran of the ATF to lead the agency that has not had a confirmed director at its helm since B. Todd Jones left in 2015.
David Chipman first served as a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for 25 years and then as an expert on gun violence prevention, working as a senior policy advisor at Giffords.
During his tenure at ATF, he disrupted firearms trafficking operations in Virginia that were supplying illegal guns to New York City, served as a member of ATF’s version of SWAT, and was named the Special Agent in Charge of ATF’s Firearms Programs. During his tenure at the Department of Justice, David received the Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety in honor of his efforts aimed at preventing gun homicides in targeted U.S. cities.
Since his retirement from the ATF in 2012, David has served as an expert advising gun-violence prevention organizations. He was also an appointed member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Firearms Committee after helping them establish national gun violence prevention priorities in 2011. Raised in Detroit, David received an undergraduate degree from American University and a master’s degree in management from Johns Hopkins University.
“David knows the AFT well. He served there for 25 years,” Biden said Thursday while announcing new gun control measures. “And Vice President Harris and I believe he’s the right person, at this moment, for this important agency.”
