Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), said his agency trusts local law enforcement to help it conduct firearms traces legally.
“We support police and trust police departments to submit traces when they relate to criminal investigations,” he said.
Dettelbach testified before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies during a budget hearing on April 18, 2023.
Biden’s budget proposal contains $1.9 billion for the ATF. This represents a 13.6 percent increase over fiscal 2022 and half a billion more than the agency’s fiscal 2020 budget. Included are funds to expand the agency personnel from 5,463 to 5,965, which would include 183 new agents.
The proposed budget would expand the ATF by 35.7 percent—an overall expansion of more than 50 percent since the Obama administration.
Gun rights groups have criticized the proposed budget, claiming the ATF is using a “zero tolerance” policy to build an unconstitutional gun registry. Gun Owners of America (GOA) and others have asserted that ATF agents use unintentional clerical errors found during inspections as a pretext for shutting down gun dealers.
In the past, gun dealers were required to keep transaction records for only 20 years. The ATF has changed that to require the documents to be kept permanently.
When a shop closes, all its sales records are transferred to the government. GOA claims the ATF has aggregated these records into a central gun registry to track all firearms, whether they have been used in a crime or not.
Committee member Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) asked Dettelbach how much ATF spends to digitize the records and whether the database they are building is searchable. Dettelbach could not provide an amount paid but said ATF follows guidelines set by Congress limiting when and how it can use the database to trace firearms.
Dettelbach told Clyde that the ATF receives millions of paper records each month that must be manually entered into the ATF computers.
“We are, as far as I know, the only customer that pays additional money to have search function taken out of Adobe Acrobat,” Dettelbach said.
Clyde pointed out that one of the limits sought by Congress is that traces can only be done to investigate a “bona fide” crime. He said information from the National Criminal Instant Background Check system showed traces for found firearms, health and safety, food and drug health and safety, and abortion, among others.
“I don’t see the crime here,” Clyde said.
Dettelbach said traces are done for local law enforcement agencies and that ATF assumes they are part of criminal investigations.
“We support police and trust the police department to submit traces when they relate to criminal investigations,” Dettelbach said.
Dettelbach told the committee that the ATF needs to expand to properly fight gun crime under the policies of President Joe Biden’s administration.
“ATF’s critical role in combating violent crime is contingent on Congress providing adequate funding to allow ATF to effectively implement the tools we have,” Dettelbach told the committee in a written statement.
Committee chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) opened the hearing by saying, “Many folks are justifiably concerned about sweeping, seemingly poorly reasoned new rules emanating from the ATF in recent months.”
Several committee members questioned the director on the agencies flip-flopping on the issue of pistol stabilizing braces. The ATF changed its position several times over 10 years on whether the devices were legal under the National Firearms Act or if they converted legal pistols into illegal short-barreled rifles.
“How is this not an attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights,” Rogers asked.
Dettelbach acknowledged there had been “inconsistencies” in the process. He said the agencies received numerous questions about the devices.
Congress Writes the Law
“We are implementing the statute as passed by Congress,” Dettelbach said.Dettelbach said the budget increase is necessary to fully implement the recently passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). He said the Act provides more robust tools for the ATF to fight gun crime.
This includes better technology for firearms tracking, combatting gun trafficking and preventing “straw purchases,” and better oversight of federal firearms license holders. He said any cuts to the ATF would impede local law enforcement agencies that depend on ATF for data and other support.
“ATF cannot fully implement the BCSA in the way that Congress directed without receiving the appropriate level of funding,” Dettelbach said.
Ranking member Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) said there had been talk of cutting the ATF budget by up to 22 percent. He said this would effectively reduce the agency’s funding to 2018 levels.
Citing statistics that mass shootings have doubled, and the number of children and teens killed by guns has risen by 42 percent since 2018, he said any cuts “seem misguided.”
