Two weeks ago House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-OH) sent letters to the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the ATF seeking answers about the Biden administration’s role, if any, in a lawsuit filed by the city of Chicago against gunmaker Glock that could halt the sales of the company’s popular pistols to Chicago residents and throughout the state of Illinois. Specifically, Comer wanted to know what communications the White House and ATF had with gun control groups and Chicago officials about a meeting between representatives of the gun company and ATF officials that happened just a day before Chicago filed suit. 

The White House has now officially responded to Comer, but the Biden administration is stonewalling Comer’s request for information.

In a letter first obtained by the Hill, the White House on Monday called on Comer and the House GOP to work with them on gun violence prevention. 

The letter, from deputy counsel to the president Rachel Cotton, was in response to Comer’s letter to the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention on July 14. It said his committee is investigating collaboration between the Biden administration and anti-gun groups that are plaintiffs in pending litigation.

The White House, in response, listed Biden’s work on preventing gun violence and cited data the violent crime has decreased under this administration. It also suggested Comer “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.”

There’s not really a need for a congressional investigation into auto sears, which, as the White House points out, are already illegal. We know that China is shipping an untold number of the switches into the United States under Joe Biden’s watch, but the switches can also be produced using 3D printers. We know what they do and where they’re coming from, in other words. What we don’t know is the extent of the involvement by the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the gun control lobby’s efforts to go after Glock for the third-party actions of criminals. 

What’s the White House afraid of disclosing? Did Rob Wilcox, the former Everytown for Gun Safety lobbyist who now serves as the de facto head of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, direct the ATF to meet with Glock executives and demand they make changes to the design of their handguns? Did the White House pressure the ATF to reclassify Glocks as machine guns, as we’ve heard from former ATF deputy assistant director Pete Forcelli? And after Glock allegedly refused to comply with the ATF’s demands, did Wilcox or anyone else in the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention reach out to Chicago officials and let them know they could proceed with their litigation? 

If the answer to each of those questions is “no,” then why not simply produce the documents demanded by the House Oversight Committee (or declare on the record that there was no communication between the White House, ATF, and gun control groups) instead of delivering Comer a letter chock-full of Biden’s anti-gun talking points? Based on The Hill‘s reporting on the White House response, it sounds like the White House didn’t deny that any conversations or communications took place. They just don’t want to provide any details about those conversations to Congress. 

We don’t know what, if any, response has come from ATF director Steve Dettelbach, but I doubt he’s going to be any more forthcoming than the administration he serves. The Biden White House is circling the wagons, and that’s all the more reason for the House Oversight Committee to move forward with its investigation into the possible collusion between the gun control activists in the administration, the city of Chicago, and the gun control lobby at large.