Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the context of "U.S. Department of Justice"

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is an executive department of the United States federal government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department is headed by the U.S. attorney general, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. Pam Bondi has served as U.S. attorney general since February 4, 2025.

The Justice Department contains most of the United States' federal law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The department also has eight divisions of lawyers who represent the federal government in litigation: the Criminal, Civil, Antitrust, Tax, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, National Security, and Justice Management Divisions. The DOJ includes the U.S. Attorneys' offices for each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts.

The National Firearms Act (NFA), 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, 48 Stat. 1236 was enacted on June 26, 1934, and currently codified and amended as I.R.C. ch. 53. The law is an Act of Congress in the United States that, in general, imposes an excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those firearms. The NFA is also referred to as Title II of the federal firearms laws, with the Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA") as Title I.

All transfers of ownership of registered NFA firearms must be done through the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (the "NFA registry"). The NFA also requires that the permanent transport of NFA firearms across state lines by the owner must be reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Temporary transports of some items, most notably suppressors (also referred to as silencers), do not need to be reported.

In the United States, the right to keep and bear arms is modulated by a variety of state and federal statutes. These laws generally regulate the manufacture, trade, possession, transfer, record keeping, transport, and destruction of firearms, ammunition, and firearms accessories. They are enforced by state, local and the federal agencies which include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The private right to keep and bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. This protection became legally explicit when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) that the Amendment defined and protected an individual right, unconnected with militia service. A subsequent holding in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) ruled that the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thereby applies to state and local laws. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022) the Court struck down New York's may-issue policy of being required to show "proper cause" to be granted a concealed carry license, but allowed states to enforce "shall-issue" permitting where applicants must satisfy certain objective criteria such as passing a background check. It also held that any regulation of firearms in the United States is presumed unconstitutional unless the state can prove it is rooted in the country's text, history, and tradition. In United States v. Rahimi (2024), this test was refined as the Court upheld federal laws restricting gun rights from those accused of domestic violence and said that lower courts should not seek exact comparisons when reviewing the historical tradition but rather look at similar analogues and general principles.