Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ATF

ATF traces its roots to the tax collectors of the Treasury Department, whose agents chased Prohibition-era bootleggers. It became an independent Treasury bureau in 1972. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 moved its law enforcement functions to the Justice Department, effective January 2003, and added explosives to its name, while alcohol and tobacco tax collection stayed in Treasury with the new Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

ATF enforces federal firearms laws, including the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968. It licenses and inspects federal firearms dealers, manufacturers, and importers, investigates gun trafficking and violent crime, and runs the National Tracing Center, the only federal facility that traces guns recovered at crime scenes. It also investigates bombings and arson, regulates commercial explosives, and pursues illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco.

Because guns are among the most contested issues in American politics, ATF is often at the center of fights over rules and enforcement. Its raid at Waco in 1993 and the botched Fast and Furious gun-tracing operation of 2009 to 2011 drew congressional investigations. Its rules on pistol stabilizing braces and on untraceable ghost gun kits were challenged in court, and the Supreme Court upheld the ghost gun rule in Bondi v. VanDerStok in 2025. In 2025 the administration also proposed cutting its budget and merging it with the DEA.