BATF

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Common name	Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Abbreviation	ATF
Seal of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Badge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Flag of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Agency overview
Formed	July 1, 1972; 44 years ago (1972-07-01)
Preceding agency	Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Employees	4,770 (2013)
Annual budget	US$1.15 billion (2012)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency	United States
General nature	Federal law enforcement Civilian agency
Operational structure
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Agency executive	Thomas E. Brandon, Deputy Director
Parent agency	United States Department of Justice
Website
www.atf.gov

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives; acts of arson and bombings; and illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products. The ATF also regulates via licensing the sale, possession, and transportation of firearms, ammunition, and explosives in interstate commerce. Many of ATF's activities are carried out in conjunction with task forces made up of state and local law enforcement officers, such as Project Safe Neighborhoods. ATF operates a unique fire research laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, where full-scale mock-ups of criminal arson can be reconstructed. The agency is led by Thomas E. Brandon, Acting Director, and Ronald B. Turk, Acting Deputy Director. ATF has 4,770 employees, and an annual budget of $1.15 billion (2012).

The ATF was formerly part of the United States Department of the Treasury, having been formed in 1886 as the "Revenue Laboratory" within the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue. The history of ATF can be subsequently traced to the time of the revenuers or "revenoors" and the Bureau of Prohibition, which was formed as a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1920. It was made an independent agency within the Treasury Department in 1927, was transferred to the Justice Department in 1930, and became, briefly, a division of the FBI in 1933.

When the Volstead Act, which established Prohibition in the United States, was repealed in December 1933, the Unit was transferred from the Department of Justice back to the Department of the Treasury where it became the Alcohol Tax Unit (ATU) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Special Agent Eliot Ness and several members of The "Untouchables", who had worked for the Prohibition Bureau while the Volstead Act was still in force, were transferred to the ATU. In 1942, responsibility for enforcing federal firearms laws was given to the ATU.