AILSA CHANG, HOST:
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made a lot of promises about what he would do on his first day in office, including this promise at a National Rifle Association event in February.
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DONALD TRUMP: On Day 1, we will sack the radical gun-grabber Steve Dettelbach. Did you ever hear of Steve Dettelbach? Do you know who the hell he is?
CHANG: Steve Dettelbach is the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In an interview with NPR, Dettelbach defended the ATF and its work under his leadership and the Biden administration. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas reports.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: When Steve Dettelbach took over as ATF director in July 2022, the nation was reeling from a series of mass shootings that had killed nearly 40 people. The job of getting a grip on the rise in violent crime fell in part to Dettelbach and the ATF. Two years later, Dettelbach says they've made significant progress.
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STEVE DETTELBACH: Since I started at ATF, the numbers on violent crime now for two years in a row have come down precipitously. And I think this'll be, as we finish out this year, a third.
LUCAS: FBI statistics show that, in 2023, violent crime fell 3%, including a sharp drop in homicides. The FBI's preliminary figures for the first half of 2024 show violent crime down another 10% compared to the same period the previous year.
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DETTELBACH: So violent crime is dropping precipitously, and I just want to say, that doesn't happen by accident.
LUCAS: Dettelbach attributes that drop in part to the work ATF and its partners have done to identify shooters and get them off the streets. The ATF isn't big. It only has around 5,000 employees, about half of whom are special agents. But it's the main agency that enforces federal gun laws, and it's also responsible for regulating the firearm industry - a role that has made it a frequent target of gun rights groups and their supporters on Capitol Hill. Congress cut almost $50 million from ATF's budget for fiscal 2024, and the agency could face steeper cuts next year, when Republicans control both houses of Congress.
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DETTELBACH: What we're doing with our partners is working. It is time to double- and triple-down on success. It is not time to defund success.
LUCAS: Dettelbach says that current cuts to ATF's budget have taken a toll. Deeper ones, he warns, would have a ripple effect.
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DETTELBACH: These are cuts that will be paid for first by ATF agents, second by state and local law enforcement partners who depend on us every day, and then ultimately by the American public, who needs our protection from violent crime.
LUCAS: Dettelbach says ATF provided 200,000 real-time leads last year alone to law enforcement across the country to help in gun crime investigations. ATF also provided firearm traces that were crucial in cases big and small, including the mass shooting at a July 4 parade outside Chicago in 2022 and the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania this July. ATF's ability to turn those leads around quickly would be hampered, he says, if the agency's budget takes another hit.
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DETTELBACH: These are real leads and real cases that will be slowed down.
LUCAS: Under the Biden administration, the ATF also has taken steps on gun control. It's issued a new rule on so-called ghost guns and tightened rules on devices that convert pistols into short-barrelled rifles. It's also put in place tighter regulations on unlicensed gun-sellers. Trump has vowed to undo at least some of those measures, and it's unclear which, if any, will survive in the incoming administration. What is clear, Dettelbach says, is that despite progress, the country still has a huge problem with gun violence.
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DETTELBACH: Nobody is sitting here saying - certainly not me - problem solved. We have a huge challenge ahead of us and a lot of work left to go.
LUCAS: That work, however, is certain to fall to someone else come January 20, when Trump returns to the White House. Dettelbach says, whoever replaces him at ATF, he hopes the individual is confirmed by the Senate, whether that person shares his views on gun policy or not. Dettelbach says the career folks at ATF deserve a director with White House backing who can advocate for and support the agency and its work, the vast majority of which, he says, is noncontroversial and helps keep the public safe.
Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MNELIA SONG, "CLOSURE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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