AP Photo/Brennan Linsley If the votes to confirm David Chipman as permanent director of the ATF were assured, then Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would have scheduled a floor vote by now. As it is, Schumer’s not saying when that vote could take place, but based on the comments by Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday, it’s pretty clear that Democrats recognize that Chipman hasn’t convinced moderate and red-state Dems like Joe Manchin to take the unprecedented step of putting a gun control activist in charge of the agency overseeing the firearms industry and the federal enforcement of gun laws.