A former attorney for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says proposed federal cuts would hinder the agency's ability to keep up with key regulations – affecting public safety, in Wisconsin and across the country.
One ATF responsibility is conducting inspections to ensure gun dealers sell firearms in accordance with federal law.
Pam Hicks, a former chief counsel at the agency now a partner with the DC Law Collective, said ATF has already struggled to meet inspection goals with not enough resources.
The Trump administration’s budget cuts would reduce regulatory enforcement by 40% – which Hicks said would only add more limitations to an underfunded agency.
"If criminals are using those dealers to acquire guns, law enforcement is less likely to discover that before guns get used in crimes, and are more likely to discover it after guns get used in crimes," said Hicks.
"That is obviously not good, and very dangerous."Hicks said firearms tracing is a critical ATF function to help solve firearms crimes and detect trafficking.
According to the ATF, in 2022, more than 8,000 firearms were recovered and traced in Wisconsin.
ATF is also required to inspect explosives licensees every three years, which Hicks said also drains resources from inspecting gun dealers.
She said the entire ATF budget before cuts was less than $2 billion.
Hicks argued that the cuts would provide minimal cost savings and reduce public safety.
She said she sees this as a contradiction to a Trump administration stated goal of "making America safe again.
"To be clear, I do think they genuinely are interested in doing things about violent crime," said Hicks.
"I take them at their word on that. But their budget submissions just don't align with that, and I'm not sure why."
Nick Wilson, senior director of gun violence prevention at the Center for American Progress, said the cuts appear to be politically motivated based on partisan controversies over gun regulations.
He emphasized that if the proposed $468 million budget cuts are implemented, ATF would have fewer agents than it did 25 years ago, despite a 72% increase in gun circulation in the past 15 years.
"We've seen historic declines in violent crime and gun violence," said Wilson. "And if we see a 29% cut to this federal agency, we no doubt will see increases in illegal firearms in our community, more shootings and people not being held accountable for their violence."
