Is White House colluding with Everytown, Chicago against Glock? House's Comer investigating

by Larry Keane

6:00am Thursday, July 25, 2024

The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee isn’t playing games when it comes to the White House avoiding answers to questions about potential collusion with anti-gun groups to target Glock Inc. with a frivolous lawsuit.

Last week, James Comer (R-Kentucky), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, fired off a letter in response to the White House’s political gamesmanship. In short, Chairman Comer demanded that Stefanie Feldman, the director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, quit stalling and provide answers over “potential collaboration” between Biden administration officials and Everytown for Gun Safety.

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Comer announced an investigation into potential collusion among the Biden administration, gun control groups, and the city of Chicago to bring a lawsuit against Glock Inc., alleging the company is responsible for the criminal misuse of firearms when criminals unlawfully attach an illegal “switch” to handguns. The Oversight Committee learned that White House officials had met privately with Glock representatives to demand a design alteration to their handguns.

Special-interest-backed lawfare continues

“On the very day the suit was filed, Everytown for Gun Safety president John Feinblatt posted on X, ‘Federal officials recently contacted Glock to discuss implementing new ways to modify Glock pistols to make it harder for Glock switches to be installed. Rather than help, Glock falsely insisted there is nothing they can do,’” Comer said.

He said this indicates that Everytown had inside access to White House meetings. The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention is staffed by a former Everytown lobbyist, Rob Wilcox. Letters demanding more information were sent to Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and to Feldman.

Chairman Comer sent these letters demanding answers June 14. Instead of answering those questions, White House Deputy Counsel Rachel Cotton responded by making counteraccusations that Chairman Comer was shilling for the gun lobby. Cotton provided no answers, only listing off the Biden administration’s gun control efforts and goals, adding Congress “should open a real investigation into an actual danger to our communities: the proliferation of illegal devices that convert handguns into machineguns in a matter of seconds.”

That’s a purposefully misleading attack on not just the House Oversight Committee but also Glock. The illegal devices are “autosears,” which are illegal to possess, illegal to attach to a firearm, and illegal to use without compliance with the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA). Cotton, as an attorney, should know these aren’t produced by Glock or any other firearm manufacturer. In fact, they are largely illegally imported from China or illegally manufactured by individuals.

Curiouser and curiouser

Rather than confront the criminals illegally possessing and using these devices, all indications are that the White House teamed with the city of Chicago, which retained Everytown for Gun Safety to file the frivolous lawsuit against Glock Inc. Now that they’re being called out for the potential collusion, the only answers White House officials will provide are temper tantrums over the fact that the House Oversight Committee is doing actual oversight of executive branch abuses of courts to bring lawfare against a member of the firearms industry.

“The White House should spend more time complying with Committee requests, and less time obstructing congressional investigations into potential misconduct and misuse of office by White House officials,” Chairman Comer wrote.

Comer’s letter noted that the initial deadline for voluntary compliance passed June 14. He has extended that deadline to Aug. 2 for the White House to produce all documents between the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, ATF, Everytown, and Everytown Law referencing “Glock switches,” “machinegun conversion device” and “Chicago litigation.” Additionally, Chairman Comer wants all documents and communications between Rob Wilcox, deputy director of the White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention, and Everytown's Feinblatt.

Chairman Comer also noted that failure to voluntarily comply with the information requests could result in subpoenas compelling officials to answer the committee.

To put a coda on it all, Chairman Comer reminded Deputy Counsel Cotton of the role and responsibility of the House Oversight Committee.

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate ‘any matter’ at ‘any time’ under House Rule X.”

NSSF is closely monitoring the continued stonewalling of White House officials over collusion allegations that would drag firearms manufacturers into court because they refuse to knuckle under the gun control demands for radical special-interest groups.

Case dismissed and refiled

The city of Chicago voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit against Glock from a federal court just three days after Chairman Comer reiterated his demand for answers. Just this week, the city of Chicago refiled its lawsuit in state court, adding Glock GmbH and two in-state retailers as defendants in the lawsuit. The change of venue was due to the fact that federal courts require complete diversity of parties to have diversity jurisdiction. It could also be viewed as a way for the city of Chicago and its gun control backers, Everytown for Gun Safety, to be shopping for a more amendable court. This legal maneuver won’t slow down Chairman Comer to obtain his answers.

Republished with permission from NSSF.