Bureau stares down barrel of mounting U.S. gun crisis

Longtime target of NRA has had no permanent leadership for eight of the past 12 years

WASHINGTON— For years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been overlooked in Washington. Overshadowed by more politically powerful law-enforcement agencies such as the FBI, the ATF garnered headlines mostly for notorious episodes, including the deadly 1993 siege in Waco, Texas, and the “Fast and Furious” gun-walking scandal more than a decade later.

Now, the ATF is on the verge of a crisis. The agency, which has not grown significantly since its founding in 1973, is about to confront a staffing shortage and is set to lose its tobacco and alcohol enforcement authorities. U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to nominate a director to oversee the agency, which has been without permanent leadership for eight of the past 12 years.

Amid the dearth of leadership and resources, the White House is pushing the ATF to the forefront of its fight against violent crime. In response to the mass shooting at a Florida high school last week, Trump, who promised to fight violent criminal gangs and illegal guns — two of the ATF’s key missions — announced that he would be relying on the bureau to regulate so-called bump stock accessories.

But it is all but politically impossible for Trump, who counts the powerful gun lobby among his most ardent supporters, to strengthen the ATF. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has long sought to hobble the agency in an effort to curb its ability to regulate guns, which the gun lobby has traditionally opposed.

“Most people in law enforcement know why ATF can’t get a director,” said Michael Bouchard, a former agent and the president of the ATF Association, an independent group that supports current and former bureau officials. “It’s not because of the people. It’s because of the politics.”

For decades, the NRA has used its sway in Washington to preserve the ATF in its limited capacity. It has aggressively lobbied against nominated directors and pushed Congress to enact restrictions on how the bureau spends money to curtail its ability to regulate firearms and track gun crimes. One funding provision, for example, forbids the ATF from using electronic databases to trace guns to owners. Instead, the agency relies on a warehouse full of paper records.

It is beneficial to the NRA to have a smaller agency such as the ATF in charge of gun regulation, one senior bureau official acknowledged, rather than a larger, more politically powerful agency such as the FBI that can more effectively demand additional resources from Capitol Hill.

The NRA reported spending the most amount of money in its history in 2016 working to support Trump and the Republican Party, and its backing has come under renewed scrutiny in the gun debate that has taken shape in the days since the shooting in Parkland, Fla.

The president, in turn, has courted gun advocates, vowing to defend firearm owners and the NRA. In a tweet Thursday morning, Trump called the organization “Great People and Great American Patriots.”

An official at the Justice Department said the administration was interviewing potential ATF directors, but did not know when that might result in a nomination. The White House has confidence in the acting director, Thomas Brandon, the official said, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Brandon, who has served in that capacity since 2015, is thought of highly among the ATF workforce, agents said. But even his most ardent supporters acknowledge that a Senate-confirmed director, hand-picked by the president, would be better positioned for the agency.

The ATF’s 52-page budget proposal for the current fiscal year describes an agency on the cusp of a resource crisis. .

In describing its own shortages, the ATF says it remains unable to fulfil even basic regulatory responsibilities, including inspections of firearms dealers — something the bureau says presents a “significant risk to public safety.”