ATF FACTS
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms
Department of the Treasury
Washington, D.C.(202) 927-8500

ATF's heritage can be traced to the year 1791, when the first federal 
tax on distilled spirits was imposed.

During the Civil War, the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
appointed three detectives to ferret out persons making whiskey without 
paying federal excise tax. Those detectives are the antecedents to 
today's modern ATF special agents. For many years, ATF's primary tasks 
were collecting alcohol taxes and stamping out illegal liquor traffic. 
This latter duty became prominent during Prohibition years, until the 
Eighteenth Amendment was repealed in 1933, again legalizing the sale, 
manufacture and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

ATF regulates the alcohol and tobacco industries under the Federal 
Alcohol Administration Act of 1935 and the Internal Revenue code. This 
task has grown to include revenue protection, consumer protection and 
environmental considerations.

The first federal gun law was the National Firearms Act, enacted in 1934 
to control machine guns, sawed off shotguns and other gangster type 
weapons. In 1942, ATF assumed investigatory responsibility for the 
National Firearms Act and the Federal Fire Act of 1938. Regulating the 
firearms industry became an ATF job in 1951. ATF enforces and 
administers the Gun Control Act of 1968, which amended the National 
Firearms Act and expanded other federal gun laws. A major purpose of 
this law is to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Responsibility for regulating the legitimate explosives industry and 
curbing the misuse of explosive materials was assigned to ATF with 
passage of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970.

On July 1, 1972, ATF was transferred from the Internal Revenue Service 
and became a separate Bureau of the Treasury Department.

The Bureau is organized by Law Enforcement and Compliance Operations 
functions. Compliance Operations is concerned with trade practice 
violations, licensing and permit provisions of various acts and tax 
determination for alcohol and tobacco products. Law Enforcement 
investigates violations of the law by those by those who avoid taxes, 
operate without license or permit, smuggle cigarettes or use firearms 
and explosives illegally.

ATF employees are on duty at locations throughout the United States.

HISTORY

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), United States 
Treasury Department, is a unique Federal agency. While it is responsible 
for the administration of some of the newest Federal laws, the Bureau's 
history extends back to the earliest days of the United States.

1791 Faced with debts incurred during the Revolution, Congress imposed 
the first Federal tax on distilled spirits on March 3, 1791. This tax 
proved to be very unpopular and in 1794 violent resistance to the tax 
exploded in the famous Whiskey Rebellion. The uprising was led by Albert 
Gallatin, who later as Secretary of Treasury, levied these same taxes. 
To restore order, President Washington mustered 15,000 militiamen, 
firmly establishing the new Federal government's authority to enforce 
such taxes.

1863 Between the Whiskey Rebellion and the Civil War, taxes on distilled 
spirits were alternately repealed and enacted to meet revenue needs. 
However, in order to finance the Civil War, Congress passed the Act of 
July 1, 1862. This law created the Office of Internal Revenue and 
imposed a tax on distilled spirits that has become a permanent part of 
the Federal revenue system. In 1863, Congress authorized the hiring of 
"three detectives to aid in the prevention, detection and punishment of 
tax evaders." These laws are the trunk of a family tree that includes 
both ATF and the Internal Revenue Service.

1875 In 1875, Federal investigators broke up the infamous "Whiskey Ring" 
of corrupt grain dealers, politicians and revenue agents. This cartel 
had defrauded the government of millions of dollars in distilled spirits 
taxes and disclosure of the ring caused a major scandal. In reaction, 
Congress enacted the first Civil Service laws, recognizing that the 
quality of the people who administered the law was as important as the 
existence of the laws themselves.

1919 In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, 
ushering in the Prohibition Era. Combined with the Volstead prohibition 
Enforcement Act, the law gave the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
through the newly created Prohibition unit, jurisdiction over the 
illicit manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for 
beverage purposes. Distillers were required to dispose of the on-hand 
products, amounting to 58-60 million gallons of beverage alcohol.

1927 The decade of the "Roaring Twenties" spawned organized criminal 
mobs, who fed on the public reaction to Prohibition. Syndicates led by 
racketeers, such as Al Capone, Waxie Gordon and others, became front-
page figures. Corruption, gang slayings, "bootlegging" and "Moonshining" 
flourished. In response to the growing problem, the Prohibition Unit 
became the separate Bureau of Prohibition. Special squads were formed to 
go after the emerging criminal empires. One of the best known was headed 
by Eliot Ness in Chicago. Today's ATF special agents are the successors 
to those "Untouchables."

1934 The Prohibition Era ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment in 
1933. With Repeal, on March 10, 1934 the Bureau of Prohibition, which 
had been moved to the Department of Justice in 1930, turned over its 
responsibilities to a newly created Alcohol Tax Unit (ATU) within the 
Bureau of Internal Revenue. The legal liquor industry set about dusting 
itself off.

1940 As the legal liquor industry started back in business, with 
inadequate equipment and supplies, Congress recognized that the illegal 
liquor barons, who were still able to meet the public demand posed a 
real threat to the renascent distillers and brewers. In 1935, the 
Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA) was passed, creating licensing 
and permit requirements and establishing regulations designed to ensure 
an open and fair marketplace to the legal businessman and to the 
consumer. Until 1940, a separate Federal Alcohol Administration in 
Treasury enforced the FAA Act. In that year, it merged with ATU, 
successfully combining related law enforcement and regulatory 
authorities in a pattern that continues in ATF.

1942 One of the offshoots of Prohibition, was an unprecedented wave of 
criminal violence. The mobs and gangs made war on each other and on the 
public. In reaction, the 1934 the National Firearms Act (NFA) was 
passed, controlling what Congress termed "gangster type weapons" such as 
machine-guns and sawed-off shotguns. The NFA, America's first Federal 
gun control law, was followed in 1938, by the Federal Firearms Act which 
established limited regulation of the firearms industry and made it a 
Federal crime for felons and fugitives to receive firearms in interstate 
commerce. In 1942, responsibility for administering these laws was given 
to ATU, whose experience in both law enforcement and industry regulation 
especially suited it for these new responsibilities.

1951 In 1951 tobacco tax duties were also delegated to ATU and the unit 
title was changed in 1952 to Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the 
Internal Revenue Service (ATTD). The division now enforced the laws for 
alcohol, tobacco and firearms.

1968 Against the background of rising crime rates, and the 
assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and Martin 
Luther King, Jr., greater focus on the problem of violence resulted in 
stricter firearms laws. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 
of 1968, and the subsequent Gun Control Act of 1968, which absorbed the 
firearms provisions of the omnibus Act, replaced the FFA and NFA of the 
1930's. Bombs and other destructive devices were added to machine-guns 
and sawed-off shotguns as items strictly controlled by the government, 
and ATTD was given the first direct Federal Jurisdiction directed at 
criminal use of explosives. The GCA also created stricter licensing and 
regulation of the firearms industry and established new categories of 
offenses involving firearms. The scope of the responsibilities was such 
that ATTD was renamed as the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division of 
the Internal Revenue Service (ATFD).

1970 By the end of the 1960's the Federal government's almost 200-year-
long war against "moonshining" had been reduced by economics and 
effective enforcement to only sporadic skirmishes. While industry 
regulation and tax collection remained vitally important, ATFD's law 
enforcement resources were being redeployed in the battle against 
organized crime and criminal violence. In 1970, the Organized Crime 
Control Act was passed. This law included sections known as the 
Explosives Control Act which were modeled after the Gun Control Act 
passed two years earlier. The ECA contained provisions for both strict 
industry regulation and established certain bombings and arsons as 
Federal crimes. As with the GCA, ATFD was clearly the agency with the 
primary experience and organization to administer the new law.

1972 With the passage of the ECA, it also became apparent that ATFD was 
responsible for an interrelated scope of activities that were clearly 
distinguishable from the primary missions of the Internal Revenue 
Service. On July 1, 1972, ATFD was separated from the Internal Revenue 
Service and given full Bureau status in the Treasury Department.

1978 The new Bureau gained new responsibilities. In 1976, ATF briefly 
assumed the duty of enforcing the wagering laws from IRS. In 1978, in 
response to the millions of dollars being lost to the States by 
cigarette smuggling from low 978 tax to high tax states. ATF was charged 
with enforcing a new Contraband Cigarette Act and with helping State 
enforcement agencies to improve their enforcement and revenue collection 
capabilities. At the same time, the Bureau was developing an entirely 
new Federal effort against an emerging crime problem - arson.

1982 Based on an ATF determination that certain accelerants used in 
arson fires met the definition of explosives in the ECA, by the mid-
1970's the Bureau was able to bring major arson cases into Federal 
court. In 1982, that effort was recognized with the passage of the Anti-
Arson Act, which amended the ECA to include destruction of property by 
fire along with destruction by explosives.

TODAY Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco 
and Firearms has offices throughout the United States and in Puerto 
Rico. Its special agents, compliance inspectors and support staff are 
involved in investigating some of the most violent crimes in our 
society, in regulating some of the most important and sensitive 
industries in America, and in ensuring the annual collection of over 
$10.1 billion dollars in taxes. While the Bureau is one of the newest, 
it is heir to long experience and tradition. Its personnel are proud to 
trace their lineage back through the "revenuers," "Untouchables," 
"detectives" and "militiamen" who preceded them.

