‘Consequences Will Be Lethal’: New York ATF Enforcement To Be Slashed Under Trump

Now, the ATF’s budget will be slashed by more than a quarter, or $418 million, pending congressional approval this fall. As part of that reduction, 541 of the ATF’s more than 800 industry investigators — who ensure compliance among licensed dealers by inspecting their records and inventories and looking for evidence of trafficking — may lose their jobs.

The move will decrease the ATF’s “capacity to regulate the firearms and explosives industries by approximately 40%,” according to the DOJ’s 2026 budget summary.

Havens said that the ATF Albany bureau, with its “highly professional” and “well-educated” investigators, was particularly helpful when its agents audited her inventory and made a record of all missing weapons after her store was robbed in 2022 and 2023.

There’s an “immense peace of mind,” Havens said, knowing that the ATF is there to help her business remain in compliance. Otherwise, “We would be going sideways in five different directions.”

ATF Under Assault

The Republican desire to hobble or eliminate the ATF didn’t begin this year.

GOP leaders have often said that ATF overreach has infringed upon the Second Amendment rights of Americans, and they have introduced a barrage of bills over the past several years aimed at crippling the agency.

In 2023, Texas Rep. Michael Cloud introduced a bill requiring the ATF to destroy all gun purchase records maintained in their database. The “No Retaining Every Gun In a System That Restricts Your Rights Act” was reintroduced in 2025, but has never advanced beyond the committee stage.

GOP hostility toward the bureau reached an apex in January, when Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced the “Abolish the ATF Act,” co-sponsored by numerous House Republicans.

“I cannot imagine under any circumstance or administration where the ATF serves as an ally to the Second Amendment and law-abiding firearm owners across America,” Boebert said upon introducing the bill, which has not been advanced to a vote and has little chance of passing.

The ATF conducted 9,696 firearm compliance inspections nationwide in FY 2024 — or just 10 percent of the estimated 100,000 or so licensed firearms dealers in the US — resulting in the following recommendations:

No Changes for NY State Police

A defanged ATF, which has offices in New York City, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Long Island, should not expect the state to pick up the slack.

Beau Duffy, the executive director of public information for the New York State Police, said troopers have “no regulatory authority and cannot impose penalties upon firearms dealers.” Instead, state police work with those dealers to help bring them into compliance with the regulations, Duffy said, and they do not generally work in conjunction with the ATF.

Asked whether ATF staffing cuts would affect how the state police monitor gun dealers, Duffy offered a terse, one-word response: “No.”

Last year, troopers were only able to monitor just under 10 percent of the 1,442 licensed firearms dealers in the state, according to their reports. Out of 143 gun shops monitored, the state police found that 24 of them were not in full compliance.

In 2023, state police inspected only 55 licensed dealers, 15 of which were found not to be in full compliance.

While New Yorkers will be significantly affected by the planned ATF cutbacks, there are broader consequences for the nation at large, according to Felipe Rodriguez, a former NYPD detective sergeant who worked with the FBI on gun cases.

“We are at a crisis point with the number of individuals dying by the use of firearms,” said Rodriguez, who is also an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. “We have numerous individuals working with organized crime groups to transport these guns from the states where firearms laws are lax.”

The main bulwark against this illegal interstate transfer is the small contingent of ATF compliance officers who are looking for straw purchases — when people are paid to buy weapons for gun traffickers.

In other cases, “they are looking for guns that go missing, either through an act of malfeasance or a simple administrative error.” When officers suspect suspicious activity, they can launch an investigation.

Losing compliance officers “could open the floodgates” and hamper law enforcement efforts to stop the flow of illegal firearms from hitting the streets, Rodriguez said.

Critics and Defenders

Eliminating more than 60 percent of inspectors going forward could give bad actors and straw purchasers more room to maneuver, said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

“Guns get stolen more often than people think,” Suplina said. “They’re the ones that end up on the streets of New York City.”

“It’s a nightmare for local law enforcement,” he said, which makes what ATF inspectors do — like ensuring proper storage — so vital. And when there is a theft, “they’re there to do a complete audit of the records, because sometimes the stores do not even know what firearms are missing.”

In early July, a Brooklyn criminal indictment alleged that six individuals illegally sold nearly 50 firearms and machine gun conversion devices in broad daylight in Queens.

The ATF and the New York City Police Department, working together, said the weapons were illegally obtained by a straw purchaser in North Carolina and then transported to the borough.

Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said the firearms industry trade group is “supportive of ATF’s efforts to reform the bureau and streamline efficiencies to better serve the mission of targeting violent criminals and illegal firearm trafficking, while also fulfilling its role as the regulatory agency for the firearm and ammunition industry.”

Neither ATF Director Daniel Driscoll nor the US Justice Department responded to requests for comment.

New York Politicos Weigh In

State lawmakers told New York Focus they were not enamored of the changes earmarked for ATF and its potential impact on New Yorkers.

State Assemblymember Charles Lavine, chair of his chamber’s Judiciary Committee, decried the plan to hobble ATF.

“Pulling back on ATF enforcement is going to have a very damaging effect on New Yorkers and the American people as a whole,” he said. “The consequences will be lethal.”

State Senator Liz Krueger also made her position clear.

Krueger “opposes the federal cutbacks and agrees that if they go forward, state and local police will face increased inspection and enforcement responsibilities,” her office said in an email.

Lavine’s Senate counterpart, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, pointed to the gun violence that seriously injured several teens “steps away from the Stonewall Inn during Pride celebrations” in late June.

“The announcement by the Department of Justice to slash the number of inspectors who help monitor illegal gun sales is particularly galling,” Hoylman-Sigal said. “New York has more than 1,400 licensed gun dealers across our state, but a limited state inspection capacity, so these federal inspectors are a critical line of defense against gun trafficking and illegal sales.”

Governor Kathy Hochul, through a spokesperson, said New York State Police are already required to “complete rigorous inspections of licensed gun dealers across the State, and we will continue to follow the law.”

The governor also recently announced the creation of a permanent state office to combat gun violence, which received $3 million in funding in this year‘s state budget.

US Representative Paul Tonko, who represents part of New York’s Capital Region, did not hedge when discussing the gutting of ATF.

“I urge the Trump administration and the Justice Department to actually do something … and reverse course” on its mission to cripple the agency, he said.