Merge ATF into FBI

It’s been a challenging few months for federal law enforcement. 

The Secret Service director resigned last fall after a number of embarrassing security breaches and the chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration resigned in April after it was discovered that DEA agents were guests at so-called “sex parties” hosted by Colombian drug cartels. Meanwhile, in March, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives left his post for a private sector position with the National Football League less than two years after being confirmed. 

{mosads}This last example poses a particular challenge, as the outgoing ATF Director, B. Todd Jones, was confirmed in July 2013 after the agency had gone seven years without a full-time confirmed director.  Only after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School did Congress temporarily have the political will to finally fill the position.  

With Jones’ resignation, the agency is entering another period of temporary leadership that will likely exacerbate the many challenges the agency faces. ATF is perennially vulnerable, in large part because its mission of fighting gun crime and regulating the gun industry often puts it at odds with one of the nation’s most powerful special interests, the National Rifle Association. And, the stakes here are high: despite two decades of declining crime, the United States continues to suffer from murder rates that are 6.9 times higher than the average of peer nations – and gun murder rates that are 19.5 times higher. 

Part of the answer is to pass stronger laws – such as background checks on all gun sales – but another part of the answer is to do what the NRA itself has suggested: stronger enforcement of the gun laws we already have.   

So, what may be the best way to strengthen ATF’s mission of fighting gun crime? Get rid of ATF. 

More precisely, the Obama administration and Congress should consider moving ATF – its mission and its agents – into the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

In a 180-page report released Tuesday by the Center for American Progress, we recommend merging ATF into FBI for three principal reasons. 

Resources and Independence. As a result of pressure by the gun lobby, ATF’s budget has stagnated, rendering it hard-pressed to fulfill even its most basic functions. For example, the agency previously set a goal of conducting compliance inspections of gun dealers at least once every five years. Yet, as the report describes, the agency has never been able to meet this goal because of insufficient resources to hire inspectors, leading it to abandon the goal entirely. In addition, ATF has been hamstrung by more than a dozen appropriations riders that severely limit its ability to regulate the gun industry.   

Coordination. One of ATF’s great strengths is its ability to partner with local law enforcement to combat gun crime. However, coordination at the federal level has been more challenging. ATF and the FBI share jurisdiction over violent crime enforcement and both agencies operate violent crime and gang task forces across the country. The FBI also operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, conducting background checks for gun sales and referring cases of attempted illegal purchases to ATF for investigation – while ATF operate the gun tracing database for tracking illegal guns. But, the databases are not connected and the relationship between the agencies on gun and explosives enforcement has more often been characterized by competition than cooperation.   

Leadership. In addition to the vacuum in the director’s position, ATF struggles with leadership challenges at every level.  The agency simply lacks the usual oversight mechanisms and management controls present in most police agencies and struggles to control the operations in the field. We’ve seen symptoms of these management challenges in recent years with a number of high-profile missteps, such as Operation Fast and Furious.  

The FBI has much of what ATF lacks: political clout, sufficient resources, and a strong law enforcement structure capable of developing and successfully managing complex criminal enforcement operations. Not only would a merger help reduce the likelihood of another scandal, but it would finally give the nearly 2,500 ATF agents—many of whom have devoted their careers to this work—the leadership, resources and support they need to truly be effective and make an impact in reducing gun violence in this country.  

It is tempting to look at the new vacancy in the ATF Director position and focus solely on who should fill it and how to navigate the Senate’s byzantine confirmation process. But to do so would squander an opportunity to think bigger about how to best address the epidemic of gun violence in this country and present the strongest federal law enforcement response to the issue.  The idea of putting ATF in FBI has already been endorsed by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. And, it has been quietly explored in the Obama administration. 

With an average of 33 people murdered with guns every day, we simply don’t have the luxury of thinking small when it comes to the question of how best to enhance federal enforcement of our gun laws.​

Gerney is senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. Parsons is vice president for Guns and Crime Policy at CAP.