WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to slash the number of inspectors who monitor federally licensed gun dealers by two-thirds, sharply limiting the government’s already crimped capacity to identify businesses that sell guns to criminals, according to budget documents.

The move, part of the Trump administration’s effort to defang and downsize the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, comes as the department considers merging the ATF and the Drug Enforcement Administration. It follows a rollback of Biden-era regulations aimed at stemming the spread of deadly homemade firearms, along with other gun control measures.

Massive Reduction in Federal Gun Oversight

The department plans to eliminate 541 of the estimated 800 investigators responsible for determining whether federal dealers are following federal law and regulations intended to keep guns away from traffickers, straw purchasers, criminals and those found to have severe mental illness, according to a budget summary quietly circulated last week.

Department officials estimated the reductions would reduce “ATF’s capacity to regulate the firearms and explosives industries by approximately 40 percent” in the fiscal year starting in November — even though the staff cuts represent two-thirds of the inspection workforce. The cuts are needed to meet the White House demand that the ATF cut nearly a third from its budget of $1.6 billion.

Agency Staff Express Concerns Over Devastating Impact

News of the plan came as a shock to a workforce already reeling from months of disruption. Several front-line agency staff members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the cuts would lead to hundreds of layoffs and effectively end the ATF’s role as a serious regulator of gun sales, if they are not reversed by the White House or Congress.

“These are devastating cuts to law enforcement funding and would undermine ATF’s ability to keep communities safe from gun violence,” said John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.

A small percentage of the 100,000 or so dealers, collectors and manufacturers monitored by the ATF are inspected in any given year. The inspections have nonetheless become a target of Republicans, who view them as an intrusion into gun rights.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Glenn Thrush/Desiree Rios
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