The purpose of this industry circular is to advise firearms and ammunition excise taxpayers that effective January 24, 2003, a new Treasury agency, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, will be responsible for administering the firearms and ammunition excise tax laws and regulations currently administered by ATF.

This presentation provides an overview of the Federal Explosives Licensing Center’s (FELC)responsibilities for reviewing and processing all new applications for federal explosives licenses and/or permits as well as renewals, the background check process, and ensuring sufficiency of information received.

This presentation details the process for requesting a variance for deviating from the explosives regulations through use of a quantitative risk assessment software tool known as ‘Institute of Makers of Explosives Safety Analysis for Risk.'  The software tool is designed, in part, to evaluate the risks of a fatality from an accident involving stored explosives.

This presentation provides a history of the implementation of the Safe Explosives Act, the intention of the legislation and the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to regulate the storage of explosives, above ground or underground. Through a Memorandum of Understanding with ATF, the Mine Safety and Health Administration will inspect underground explosives storage sites for compliance with 27 CFR part 555, subpart K, Storage and will cite for any violations.

This final rule places all ATF authorities contained in part 170, title 27 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), with the ‘‘appropriate ATF officer’’ and requires that persons file documents required by 27 CFR part 170, with the ‘‘appropriate ATF officer.’’  also, this final rule removes the definitions of, and references to, specific officers subordinate to the Director.