By: Teresa Mull

Cynthia Weinter Stachelberg is the Biden administration’s nominee to be the next Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Stachelberg has expressed some disturbing views on guns in the past, once Tweeting, “Pass universal background checks and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Deliver solutions and results – that’s want voters want!” (sic)


Yet when Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) asked Stachelberg simply to define “assault weapon,” she was unable to do so, repeating a tired talking point about how we have too much gun violence in this country and how she will “follow the president’s policies.” She also claimed to be a supporter of the Second Amendment and supports hunting and shooting on public land.

When pressed some more, Stachelberg said she wants to get “AR-15s, assault weapons…out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.” Yet again, though, she was unable to provide Sen. Lee a definition of what it is she wants to ban.

Stachelberg is the perfect example of a political appointee who knows nothing about the subject about which she is charged with governing. Stachelberg and those like her who use terms they do not understand spread misinformation and give the public an incomplete, and often inaccurate, understanding of the firearm industry and terminology.

Such reckless behavior has caused a portion of the public to think that if we ban so-called “assault weapons,” we will solve gun violence. The problem is …. what is an assault weapon? Stachelberg doesn’t know. Neither does Biden’s ATF nominee David Chipman, or any number of politicians and bureaucrats put in charge of regulating these items.

If we are going to have a serious conversation about curbing gun violence in America, we first need to be accurate and precise in our language.

Watch the videos below to learn more:

Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.