The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

This past week for my AP English class we started the book, Columbine, by Dave Cullen. In this book, the author explains with great detail the shooting and its effects on the community. The book mentioned how the ATF had to come to the school to check that everything was all clear. I researched ATF and learned that the acronym stands for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This bureau is a federal law enforcement organization consisting of 4,770 employees. Its main responsibilities are pretty self-explanatory from the name: investigating violations of federal alcohol/tobacco tax regulations, and violations of federal firearms/explosives laws. To be more specific, the ATF works with the investigation of bombings/acts of arson, track illegal trafficking of alcohol/tobacco products, and many other activities in conjunction with task forces made up of state/federal law enforcement officers. Here are pictures of an ATF Special Response Team (Special Weapons and Tactics team for the ATF) and of an ATF building.

                                                              








In regard to applying, the ATF is competitive; about 5% of applicants actually get hired. In order to become an ATF agent, you need to complete a 27 week training program, which is one of the longest training programs in the United States (much longer that the training process for FBI, CIA, etc.) Despite their smaller size, there are many field offices throughout the nation: Atlanta, GA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; St. Paul, MN; Philadelphia, PA. However, there are field offices outside the country, such as in Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia. Once becoming an official member of the ATF, you are given a Glock 22 or a Glock 27 as a sidearm. If you are part of the Special Response Team (the picture above), then you are armed with a Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun. The nice thing about being an ATF Special Agent is that they are given lead investigative authority in any federal crime committed with a firearm or explosive. Hopefully, this blog post has given you some interest in the ATF or has made you start to consider pursuing a criminal justice career in the future.