When the ATF seizes alcohol they will hold onto it in an undisclosed location until the investigation is done and the court proceedings are over and will usually dispose of the alcohol afterwards.
ATF's goal is to target, identify, and dismantle criminal enterprises with ties to violent crime, that traffic illicit liquor or contraband tobacco in interstate commerce; seize and deny their access to assets and funds and prevent their encroachment into the legitimate alcohol or tobacco industry.
The ATF has the authority to seize and forfeit any firearms, explosives, ammunition, alcohol, tobacco and other assets that are used in criminal activity under the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture authority.
The guns that are exempt from ATF are most conventional sporting firearms.
The firearms that are subject to the National Firearms Act or NFA are destructive devices, silencers, machine guns and short barrel firearms as well as other weapons have to be registered with ATF.
The crimes that are investigated by the ATF are crimes against federal laws and regulations that are related to the criminal misuse of explosives and firearms as well as crimes such as firearms trafficking, acts of arson and the diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.
The ATF is called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The ATF works to protect the public from crimes that involve explosives, firearms, arson, regulates the lawful commerce in firearms and explosives, the diversion of tobacco products and provides worldwide support to public safety, law enforcement and industry partners.
The weaknesses of the ATF is that the ATF do not consistently collect the information needed to track outcomes and assess effectiveness of external partnerships and interactions.
Also ongoing challenges in working with external law enforcement partners and plans to address the challenges are not documented consistently.
ATF agents are federal agents that are primarily responsible for enforcing and administering criminal and regulatory provisions of the federal laws that pertain to guns and destructive devices such as arson, explosives and bombs etc.
The ATF does have police powers and can make arrests.
ATF agents are special agents like FBI, DEA, IRS have powers of arrest.
An ATF agent can arrest you when they have a legal reason to make an arrest just like regular police can.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is the federal agency primarily responsible for administering and enforcing the criminal and regulatory provisions of the federal laws pertaining to destructive devices (bombs), explosives, and arson.
Specifically, ATF Special Agents have lead investigative authority on any federal crime committed with a firearm or explosive, as well as investigative authority over regulatory referrals and cigarette smuggling.
Under the United States Constitution, only the Legislative branch of the government can create laws.
The ATF is an agency of the Justice Department, which is part of the Executive branch, which cannot create laws.
As sworn law enforcement officers, special agents are authorized to carry weapons and make arrests for federal offenses against the United States.
The term "any other weapon" means any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive, a pistol or revolver having a barrel with a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell, weapons with combination shotgun and rifle.
On January 31, 2023, the ATF published a politically driven ruling which noted that attaching a pistol brace to a rifle with a barrel under 16 inches would make that firearm an NFA short-barreled rifle (and thus subject to additional regulation and tax).