The purpose of this open letter is to remind all Federal firearms licensees (FFL) of their ready ability to enhance public safety and assist law enforcement by encouraging and facilitating transfers of firearms between private individuals through their businesses.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation will cease its operations as the NICS point of contact on March 31, 1999. Therefore, beginning April 1, 1999, in order to initiate a NICS check for any firearm, Colorado licensees must contact the FBI’s NICS Operations Center.

This letter is superseded by ATF's January 5, 2006 open letter.  The purpose of this letter is to inform Federal firearms licensees (FFLs) that beginning October 19, 2005, Nevada’s Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) Permits will no longer qualify as an alternative to a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check.

Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) intends to enter into cooperative agreements with State and local law enforcement agencies to assist them in providing the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) Program to school students. This notice also sets forth the intended funding priorities and criteria, as well as the application procedures that ATF will use to select, and award Federal funds to, State and local law enforcement agencies to deliver the G.R.E.A.T. Program.

This order delegates the authority to approve ATF F 1345.4, Request and Nondisclosure Agreement, for current, departing, and former employees who are removing or accessing Bureau documents.

To protect the lives and safety of law enforcement officers from the threat posed by ammunition capable of penetrating a protective vest when fired from a handgun, the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), as amended, prohibits the import, manufacture, and distribution of "armor piercing ammunition" as defined by the statute. Interpreting the meaning of this statutory language, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has developed a framework that will apply to requests seeking a determination that certain projectiles qualify for this "sporting purpose" exemption.

The Department of Justice is amending its regulations to allow the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to exercise, for a one-year period following the effective date of this rule, the authority to seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled substance offenses. Many years of experience have demonstrated that forfeiting the assets of criminals is an essential tool in combating criminal activity and provides law enforcement with the capacity to dismantle criminal organizations that would continue to function after the conviction and incarceration of individual offenders. Moreover, administrative forfeiture permits the expedient and effective use of this crucial law enforcement tool. This rule is effective February 25, 2013.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 divides the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Department of the Treasury, into two separate agencies, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in the Department of Justice, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in the Department of the Treasury. These changes require reorganization of title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This final rule renames chapter I, establishes a new chapter II in 27 CFR, and removes certain regulations from chapter I and recodifies them in the new chapter II.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking, in part, pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) which requires an agency to review within ten years of publication, rules for which an agency prepared a final regulatory flexibility analysis addressing the impact of the rule on small businesses or other small entities. Based on comments we have received in response to the RFA analysis, this document proposes amendments to the explosives regulations relating to fireworks.