ATF Could Lose It’s Name And Functionality As We Know It

By CN Staff

By John Boch via TTAG

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ days look numbered. Once more, under its 2020 budget proposal, the Trump administration seeks to transfer the ‘alcohol’ and ‘tobacco’ duties from the BATF. The U.S. Treasury Department would take those duties if the administration gets its way. Today’s BATF would also get a new name: Bureau of Arson, Explosives and Firearms.

This move makes sense. After all, according to BATF’s own Fact Sheet, alcohol- and tobacco-related cases, combined, only totaled .24% of the cases where the agency sought charges. The overwhelming majority, 92% of the time, the agency initiated charges in firearm-related cases.

The Trump administration sought to transfer out the booze and smokes enforcement in 2018 too, but Congress seemed disinterested in the change. This despite claims that cracking down on cigarette smuggling would bring in a windfall to federal and state governments in lost tax revenue.

The Washington Post had this latest proposal.

The Trump administration proposed a 2.3 percent reduction in the Justice Department’s budget, …Read the Rest

Source:: Concealed Nation