September 26, 2016

Guns and Poses: A Brief History of the ATF

From busting bootleggers to being branded as “jack-booted government thugs”

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

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Related: How the gun lobby forced the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to use analog tools to enforce gun laws in a digital world.

1934

Popperfoto/Getty Images

Responding to Tommy-gun-toting bootleggers, Congress passes the National Firearms Act, the first federal gun law. It requires the registration of machine guns and short-barreled shotguns.

1968

Following a wave of violent crime and high-profile assassinations, LBJ signs the Gun Control Act, which forbids ex-felons and the mentally ill from owning guns. It operates on the honor system: Buyers simply fill out a form stating that they’re not prohibited from owning a gun.

1981

The NRA releases It Can’t Happen Here, a movie attacking the ATF, the main enforcer of federal gun laws. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) calls the bureau a “jack-booted group of fascists who are a shame and a disgrace to our country.” President Ronald Reagan, who had promised to abolish the ATF, proposes handing its duties to the Secret Service. The proposal dies after the NRA objects.

1986

The Firearm Owners’ Protection Act rolls back part of the Gun Control Act and outlaws the creation of a national gun registry. The NRA calls it “the law that saved gun rights.”

1993

 

Peter Silva/ZUMA Press

A deadly ATF raid leads to the disastrous siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the gun lobby renews its assault on the bureau. Congress passes the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which requires background checks for anyone buying guns from licensed dealers.

1995

 

Reuters

The Oklahoma City bombing is carried out by Timothy McVeigh, once seen at a gun show selling an ATF cap with bullet holes in it. NRA Executive VP Wayne LaPierre decries “jack-booted government thugs” and “federal agents wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black stormtrooper uniforms.”

2003

Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) unveils measures that restrict the ATF’s use of trace data for crime guns and mandate the destruction of background-check data within 24 hours of a gun sale. Congress has renewed the Tiahrt Amendments every year since.

2006

The NRA successfully lobbies for an amendment to the Patriot Act that makes the ATF director subject to Senate confirmation. The only permanent ATF director since then served less than two years.

2011

 

Ron Sachs/CNP/ZUMA Press

Hundreds of weapons are smuggled into Mexico and go missing as part of the ATF’s Fast and Furious operation. LaPierre claims the botched sting “facilitated a crime to further [a] gun control political agenda.”

2014

Following a four-year hiring freeze and stagnant funding, the ATF’s staffing hits its lowest level in nearly a decade.

2016

President Barack Obama calls for 200 new ATF agents, but Congress refuses.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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