Everytown and Moms Demand Action Respond to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach’s Resignation

WASHINGTON - Today, after Steven Dettelbach, Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) resigned, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action released the following statements:

"With violent crime at a near 50-year low, we couldn't be more grateful to Director Dettelbach for his tireless efforts to keep our communities safe," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. "Following his bipartisan confirmation, Director Dettelbach led ATF's efforts to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, increase prosecutions for gun crimes, and partner with state and local law enforcement to keep guns out of dangerous hands."

"Director Dettelbach's leadership at the ATF was instrumental in turning the promise of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into real action," said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. "He displayed a true commitment to public safety as ATF Director, and his work undoubtedly made our communities safer from gun violence. As he steps down today, we're focused on protecting the progress we achieved during his tenure."

Dettelbach was nominated in April 2022 and confirmed by the Senate in July 2022, becoming the first Senate-confirmed ATF director since 2015. As the ATF's leader, Dettelbach helped implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the Biden administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which tasked the ATF with revoking the licenses of gun dealers who willfully violate federal gun laws. Such "qualifying violations" include transferring a firearm to a prohibited person, failing to run a required background check, falsifying records, failing to respond to an ATF tracing request, or refusing to permit the ATF to conduct an inspection.

During Dettelbach's tenure, the ATF finalized rules to curtail ghost guns and short-barreled assault weapons equipped with arm braces - two gun industry innovations that took off during Trump's first term when the ATF lacked a leader - as well as unlicensed gun dealing. Additionally, Dettelbach raised the alarm on "Glock switches" and other machine gun conversion devices (MCDs) showing up at crime scenes across the country, and helped establish "emerging threats" task forces to crack down on them.

Full funding and strong support for ATF is mission-critical, but gun extremists in Congress have called to defund and even abolish ATF altogether. Last March, Congress passed a spending bill that slashed nearly $50 million from ATF's budget, undermining the nation's leading law enforcement agency when it comes to protecting the public from gun violence and solving gun crimes. In July, the House Committee on Appropriations advanced legislation that would cut almost $200 million more from ATF in Fiscal Year 2025 and impose dangerous and misguided riders that would make it more difficult for ATF to prevent, investigate, and respond to gun violence and crime. Budget cuts don't just hurt ATF and its more than 5,000 dedicated agents, investigators, and personnel, but also ATF's state and local law enforcement partners who rely on ATF to help keep their communities safe.