Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury Picked To Head ATF

BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 10 months ago

National Association for Gun Rights.

Late on Friday afternoon the White House released an official statement that Chuck Canterbury, Jr. was nominated to become the next ATF Director.

Unfortunately, Canterbury has a long history of publicly supporting and endorsing anti-gun policies, anti-gun Supreme Court nominees, and anti-gun high ranking government officials.

In his official capacity as President of the National Fraternal Order of Police, Canterbury has:

*** Supported radical anti-gun Supreme Court Justice    Sonia Sotomayor.

*** Supported former Attorney General Eric Holder – Obama’s head honcho who ran the deadly Fast and Furious gun running program.

*** Supported expanding the federal government’s gun registration schemes.

Even more troubling, Canterbury’s FOP is currently lobbying AGAINST Constitutional Carry, even though the vast majority of law enforcement officers support the right to carry.

I find this release to be short on facts, or at least, references to those facts along with analysis of them.  So let’s do a little digging.

From The Daily Caller.

President Donald Trump announced Friday plans to nominate Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Canterbury has been Fraternity Order of Police (FOP) president for 16 years, having previously spent 26 years in the Horry County, South Carolina, Police Department’s patrol, criminal and training divisions, according to the White House statement.

“Chuck is one of the most honorable people I’ve ever worked with and if he is selected, I can’t think of a finer person to take the position,” said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association. Thompson made the remarks to POLITICO in Nov. 2018, when Canterbury’s name was first floated for the position.

[ … ]

Canterbury has been vocal in his Second Amendment support, testifying July 2009 before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who had worked closely with police as a Manhattan prosecutor early in her career:

“I want no mistake to be made,” Canterbury testified. “I take a back seat to no one in my reverence for the Second Amendment. In fact, if I thought that Judge Sotomayor’s presence on the court posed a threat to my Second Amendment right, I would not be supporting her here today.”

Dave Kopel explains why support for Sotomayor was problematic.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the Supreme Court opinions in McDonald v. Chicago was the dissenters’ assault on District of Columbia v. Heller. Not only did Justice Stephen G. Breyer vote against extending the Second Amendment to state and local governments, he also argued forcefully and at length for overturning Heller and, therefore, for turning the Second Amendment into a practical nullity. Ominously, Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined the Breyer dissent – contradicting what she told the U.S. Senate and the American people last summer.

So was support for Sotomayor just a brain seizure or an indication of a deeper problem?  First, Canterbury wants local and state police to know all about NICS denials.  Doubtless such support for this law is couched in terms of learning about felons trying to purchase weapons, but swept into the mix are veterans who didn’t know they were on the denial list for NICS due to reporting conducted by the DoD for things like PTSD.

More troublesome still is this letter from Canterbury to Patrick Leahy.

Dear Mr. Chairman,

I am writing on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police, the oldest and largest law enforcement organization in the United States, to strongly recommend that several measures, all absolutely critical elements of addressing gun violence, be included in any legislation moving forward as a result of your deliberations.
These measures are:

•Expansion of background checks on firearm purchasers;
• Reinvigoration of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATP) to ensure that it has the tools and resources necessary to its mission;
• Improved law enforcement access to mental health records in the context of firearms acquisition;
• Funding to put more State and local law enforcement officers on the street.

[ … ]

We believe the most logical starting point to address gun violence is the expansion of the background check system. Incomplete or absent background checks create a gaping hole in the wall between firearms and criminals. Loopholes in the background check system give criminals unprecedented opportunity to access firearms. This problem must be remedied quickly. An expanded and improved background check system will provide the first level of defense against criminals arming themselves.

[ … ]

Specifically, the confirmation ofB. Todd Jones must occur as quickly as possible. As Acting Director at ATP, Mr. Jones has provided the agency the leadership and vision which has been lacking in recent years. Mr. Jones has the requisite experience pursuing tough firearms and weapons cases and has demonstrated the ability to reset ATP after recent tumultuous investigations.

[ … ]

Along with comprehensive background checks, better access to mental health records is critical to keeping guns out of the wrong hands. Without access to these records, law enforcement, at all levels of government, is handicapped which gives the criminal element the advantage.

So with this single letter, we’ve learned that Canterbury is in favor of [a] universal background checks, [b] the nomination of B. Todd Jones as director of the ATF, and [c] law enforcement access to medical records.

The surest sign of a collectivist and statist is support for universal background checks, which is the denial of free trade, the infringement of the RKBA and in general the suppression of liberty.

We all know the record that B. Todd Jones left at the ATF, and while it’s easy to place this last one in the category of “Fix-NICS,” it isn’t exactly that.  Remember, Canterbury wrote this while president of the fraternal order of police.  He’s arguing for access to medical records by all local and state police, all justified and codified at the federal level.  You can jettison the medical privacy laws, according to Canterbury.  He wants to see your records.

But just to make it clear, Canterbury says, “I take a back seat to no one in my reverence for the Second Amendment.”  His record proves otherwise.  It would be far too simple merely to speak out against Canterbury.  I would expect nothing less from the president of the fraternal order of police.

The deeper problem is with Trump himself for nominating Canterbury.  First Trump gave us the bump stock ban.  Then he gave us support for red flag laws, I’m certain lending credibility to and giving cover for Lindsey Graham’s efforts to nationalize funding for so-called “extreme risk protection orders.”

Now he is giving us a gun controller for head of the ATF.  Don’t be surprised.  From the very beginning Trump was and always will be a Northeastern progressive.  He will never be anything other than what he is.  He will not change.  He cannot change.

He wouldn’t even understand why anyone would object to Canterbury’s nomination, in fact.  His distance from the common man wouldn’t even allow him to understand the very language of proponents of the RKBA.  We were brought up in a different cultural milieu, we have a different world and life view, we speak different languages.  It isn’t even possible to translate or interpret the languages or bridge the gap between us, we are so different.  If I were to speak to Trump about this, I may as well be speaking Mandarin.

I do not think it would be possible for Trump to understand why we would object to Canterbury, but mind you, we will likely see him sitting in front of Congress as an “expert” testifying about why America needs universal background checks and access to all medical records.  He’s done it as president of the fraternal order of police, and there is no reason to think he’s changed.  Trump has merely given him more power.

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Comments

  1. On May 29, 2019 at 7:49 am, ragman said:

    I never thought Trump was pro Second. At best he didn’t really care one way or another. However, he has surrounded himself with incredibly poor advisors. This may have come from the Kushners, who are New York liberals to the nth degree. Trump still owns it no matter where it came from. It’s later than we think and the remaining time before the next election must be used wisely.

  2. On May 29, 2019 at 9:15 am, John Taylor said:

    With apologies to Dr. Seuss, “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant: controllers are faithless, one hundred percent.”

    IOW: Those who actively seek power over others whatever they say and however they (pretend to) act, have but one goal in mind — and it is not the independence of those they seek to control.

    Sooner or later, #governmentisslavery

  3. On May 29, 2019 at 1:28 pm, Ned2 said:

    Sounds like he’s perfect for the job.

  4. On May 29, 2019 at 1:58 pm, Wirecutter said:

    Your last 4 paragraphs nails it.

  5. On May 29, 2019 at 2:19 pm, Eskyman said:

    This pick for ATF Director isn’t good. The ATF itself isn’t good, and should be disbanded. That said-

    The fault here isn’t all Trump’s. He’s not a 100% shall-not-be-infringed 2nd Amendment uncompromising resolutist like many of us are, but he’s far better than the hag we were supposed to have as president, and may very well be better than the next president whoever it is.

    Both Trump’s sons are hunters; Trump and his sons are all NRA members (yes, I know about the NRA.) Yeah, he’s not perfect on gun rights, but he’s better than most others would be and he’s what we have to work with.

    How can we best persuade Trump that this pick isn’t good? How can we promote someone that we’d like instead of this statist jerk? How can we get past the underlings that push bad candidates and let Trump know what our objections are? Those are the kind of questions I’d find helpful, but bellyaching about Trump isn’t of much use.

    I’m far more concerned about what happens *after Trump.* If a Democrat should get into office, and we know they’ll be pulling out all the stops on vote fraud, then we’ll look back to these pleasant days when we could bitch about Trump; but then we’ll have far worse problems, and the ATF will be just one of many agencies out to take our arms from us; then we’ll be back to sic semper tyrannus!

  6. On May 29, 2019 at 3:34 pm, Fred said:

    Canterbury is a pig, a special class of superior extra-humanoid. Of course he hates YOUR guns, same as I hate his guns, because they are his and he’s a pig and he hates yours because you are the enemy, you scum suckers.

  7. On May 29, 2019 at 4:26 pm, Fred said:

    It happens every day, on every forum and at every meatspace in which I participate. Y’all just happened to have triggered it. The Republicans are the party of Gun Control. Most major gun control initiatives for a hundred years now have been Republican. With everybody on a razors edge and ready to fight every whisper, every rumor of gun control under obama do you know what we got? Concealed Carry in National Parks and 8(? If I remember correctly) states going constitutional carry. I’m not pro Democrat but this stuff is ridiculous. It’s exhausting, day after day to hear how we’ll fight when our team isn’t the one giving it to us good and hard. I’m sick of this manure. THEY ARE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM, THEY ALL WANT YOU DEAD!!!! Do you know that it would be worse if it wasn’t trump? Was it, by way of fact, worse with a communist muz in the oval office? Was it? Man, fighting for RKBA seems like a useless effort at times. Do you know what’s going to happen when the next Democrat gets in? Everybody is going “wake up” and everybody is going to blame everybody for “going to sleep”, again. Even choice-supportive bias isn’t this damaging. We are being poisoned and brainwashed and we don’t’ know it because we’re being poisoned and brainwashed. Is there any other possible explanation?

    I’m going to vote for the most far out leftist there is. A commie named Hussein Obama was president and gun rights expanded. Go figure. I thank you all for your efforts BACK THEN. Man, it’s frustrating.

    Guns is the test. What good is a wall and a pro domestic mercantile type trade policy if you are a disarmed serf with internal TSA checkpoints and who now can’t get out through the wall and you benefit not one whit at the hands of the new mercantile barons? I’m willing to crash the global economy and suffer a few decades of clawing our way back to re-institute tariffs but not if I’m disarmed. Trump is a gun controller and nothing else matters. Do you all not understand that guns is the test. Everybody that continues to support trump can no longer be trusted. They are gun controllers for the sake of a cult of personality.

  8. On May 29, 2019 at 6:37 pm, Grandpa said:

    Two glaring problems. 1) “extended background checks to keep criminals from getting firearms” wrongly assumes criminals will participate in background checks. Which anyone with any comprehension knows will not happen. 2) What part of “shall not be infringed” is everyone seeming to not understand?
    Attention all of “you” who think this way…
    No. And not just no, but “hell no” and “GTFO”. No, you cannot and will not take, legislate, or in any other way; restrict my ability to defend myself and those I hold dear.
    “They” will keep pushing until it goes loud. When it does, it will be all of them, or all of us.
    Choose wisely

  9. On May 30, 2019 at 5:47 am, DAN III said:

    Fred @ 1626,

    Democrat/Republican = Left Wing/Right Wing, same bird.

  10. On May 30, 2019 at 6:34 am, Feral Underclass said:

    What does anyone expect? The ATF is an authoritarian bureaucracy. It is there to enforce existing laws and to make up new ones. Its sole reason for existing is to grow itself.

    It’s like when you build a new shed. It quickly fills up with stuff. The ATF is the shed and new ways to oppress the proles is the stuff.

    This new guy is the perfect fit. A duplicitous lying shit weasel. That right there is the reality, boys and girls.

    So, BLOAT. You’re going to need it.

    Feral

  11. On May 31, 2019 at 9:59 am, Rodceasar said:

    Thanks for pointing out how Trump is a snake in the grass! So many want to stand by this scumbag, who cares about no one but himself. He’s been a criminal before office and he’s been a greater criminal as POTUS. I know many will stand behind him just because he is a republican but I’ve always known it to be a fatal mistake and many will learn over the next several years.

  12. On June 1, 2019 at 10:06 am, alfie said:

    Hmm, looks like it is time to order and buy some stuff for varmint control before the batf changes the rules again

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You are currently reading "Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury Picked To Head ATF", entry #21319 on The Captain's Journal.

This article is filed under the category(s) BATFE,Gun Control,Police and was published May 28th, 2019 by Herschel Smith.

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