There are two Bureaus of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
One of those bureaus straps on bulletproof vests and investigates sicarios and gang members rolling around with illegal machine guns, and traces residue from bombings, and...er, some other stuff with tobacco and alcohol. I don't read much about that.
Anyway - the other BATFE spends its days roaming among the nation's gun stores and "Federal Firearms License" (FFL) holders, inspecting their paperwork. FFL holders range from sporting goods stores to ma and pa outdoors shops to guys doing transfers from their kitchen tables to, believe it or not, theater companies and Hollywood studio contractors (the only FFL in downtown Minneapolis is the armoror for the Guthrie Theater).
It was at those two categories in the middle that the Biden Administration went after with their "zero tolerance" policy for, let's be honest, largely innocent paperwork errors.
“Typically, and prior to the Biden administration’s crushing policy, minor clerical errors, such as transposing a serial number or missing a date on an ATF Form 4473, were treated as such—minor—and corrected with no serious penalty or consequence,” the report stated. “They were annotated for corrective action with ATF inspectors instructing firearm retailers on how to stay within regulations and laws. These are not ‘willful violations,’ nefarious retailer behavior or actions of blatantly breaking the law or putting public safety at risk.”
As part of its war on gun sellers, the Biden administration changed the way errors were handled with its “zero tolerance” policy, revoking some licenses for minor clerical errors and forcing some FFLs to give up their license to avoid prosecution.
According to the NSSF report, 195 FFL licenses were revoked in 2024, nearly 25% more than the 157 revocations the previous year. In contrast, ATF revoked 88 licenses in 2022 and only five in the last six months of 2021.
Well, there's a new sheriff in town; the Trump administration is doing some liposuction on federal law enforcement:
In a massive restructuring move under the Trump administration’s ongoing government overhaul, the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to eliminate over 1,000 positions at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—including more than 500 industry operations investigators (IOIs), the very people tasked with conducting compliance inspections of licensed gun dealers.
The plan, outlined in the DOJ’s FY 2026 budget proposal, marks the most significant gutting of the ATF in modern history. The agency is being dissolved as a standalone entity and merged into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as part of a broader effort to “reduce duplicative functions and infrastructure.”
And a big part of that reduction in the BATFE workforce is the Industry Operations Investigators - the ones who roam the country looking for wrongly-entered serial numbers and undotted "i"s:
While the number of ATF field agents will remain almost unchanged, going from 2,630 agents in FY2025 to 2,444 agents in FY2026 (the number of ATF attorneys is expected to remain at 107), the budget calls for steep cuts to the number of Industry Operations Investigators, who are tasked with regulatory inspections of FFLs.
According to the DOJ summary, ATF will "eliminate 541 Industry Operations Investigators (IOIs), reducing ATF’s capacity to regulate the firearms and explosives industries by approximately 40 percent in FY 2026." The Justice Department says that will save about $81.8 million, though it will result in fewer regulatory inspections of Federal firearms and explosives.
Some people are excited:
🚨BREAKING: The DOJ released a budget summary suggesting an initial cut of 541 ATF Industry Operations Investigators, cutting nearly 10% of the ATF's manpower.
— Dustin Curtis (@gunrightsdustin) June 19, 2025
While a good start, @NatlGunRights won't stop until the entire ATF is abolished. pic.twitter.com/O1yzSNaT2U
Others?
Predictably less so:
Once again, the Trump admin is putting our safety at risk to enrich gun CEOs. Gutting inspections helps no one but rogue gun dealers and those who seek to do us harm. It puts all of our families at risk. https://t.co/ztqpnHHeS7
— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) June 19, 2025
Focusing on criminals rather than paperwork?
What will they think of next?
