The Trump administration is embarking on a significant overhaul of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), aiming to ease gun regulations and dramatically cut its budget. This initiative is part of the administration’s broader government efficiency drive.
Two weeks ago, staff from the Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with trimming government operations, began working within the ATF. Their mission is to swiftly reduce regulations, according to anonymous sources familiar with these developments who spoke to NPR.
The ATF holds the crucial responsibility of regulating the gun industry, which involves probing illegal gun trading, inspecting firearms dealers for legal compliance, and issuing penalties or revoking licenses when necessary.
The Department of Government Efficiency is collaborating with ATF officials to alter around 50 regulations. Proposed amendments include extending the validity of firearm purchase background checks from 30 to 60 days and allowing records destruction by gun dealers after 20 years instead of indefinite retention. Though individually these changes might seem minor, collectively, they signify a shift towards deregulating the firearms sector.
“The reality is that the ATF plays a critical role in ensuring that gun dealers can operate in a fully, legally compliant manner,” noted Kris Brown, president of Brady, an organization advocating for gun control. “We don’t want to take that sort of critical oversight role away from them because there is no one else out there.”
The restructuring of the ATF extends beyond regulations. The Department of Justice, overseeing the agency, has proposed a 25% budget reduction for the fiscal year 2026. This would mean losing over 500 investigators responsible for inspecting federally licensed gun dealers. According to the Justice Department’s own analysis, this budget cut would impair the agency’s capacity to oversee firearms and explosives industries by approximately 40%.
The Justice Department declined to comment for NPR, but the ATF stated its intention to alleviate “unnecessary regulatory burdens” to better focus on “enforcement on violent criminals.”
Pamela Hicks, formerly the chief counsel at ATF until her February dismissal, emphasized the importance of inspectors in maintaining accurate records for crime-solving. “The reason why those [records] are kept is so that crime guns can be traced. And the reason why it’s critical that they be accurate is so that people who shouldn’t have guns don’t have guns,” she stated. “And if you can’t trace the gun because of crappy records, then that’s a problem for law enforcement.”
Hicks, who has since co-founded the DC Law Collective to support federal employees with legal advocacy, warned that underfunding one agency section affects the entire operation.
The ATF remains the sole agency capable of tracing crime-involved firearms, maintaining a database of the unique markings left on bullets or casings, akin to a gun’s fingerprint. Law enforcement frequently relies on this tracing capability to resolve violent crimes.
“The ability to show that a gun was involved in more than one crime, that a gun appeared at this crime scene, then appeared on that rooftop, helps police conduct very effective investigations,” stated Brandon del Pozo, former Burlington, Vt., police chief and assistant professor at Brown University. “We need that to be well funded. We need that to be a resource available to police everywhere.”
Del Pozo argues that the administration’s budget cuts contradict its tough-on-crime stance. The administration has indicated that its plans for ATF transformation are ongoing. Part of the broader effort to ease gun regulations includes removing taxes on gun silencers and certain firearms, as outlined in a major tax and spending bill recently passed by the Senate—a move strongly opposed by gun-control advocates.
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