Federal Explosives and Firearms Agency

Federal Explosives and Firearms Agency
Abbreviation	FEFA/EFA
Agency overview
Formed	July 1, 1972 (1972-07-01)
Preceding agency	IIA, Firearms and Explosives Enforcement
Employees	5,101 (2018)
Annual budget	$1.274 billion (2018)
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency	Ibica
Operations jurisdiction	Ibica
General nature	Federal law enforcement
Operational structure
Headquarters	Sterling Ellison Federal Building, Willmington
Agency executives	Clifford Carpenter, Director Donovan Huddleston, Deputy Director
Parent agency	Ibican Department of Justice

The Federal Explosives and Firearms Agency (FEFA) is a federal law enforcement organization within the Ibican Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives; and acts of arson and bombings. FEFA also regulates via licensing the sale, possession, and transportation of firearms, ammunition, and explosives in interstate commerce. Many of FEFA's activities are carried out in conjunction with task forces made up of state and local law enforcement officers, such as Project Safe Neighborhoods. FEFA operates a unique fire research laboratory in Orange, West Monroe, where full-scale mock-ups of criminal arson can be reconstructed. The agency is led by Director Clifford Carpenter. FEFA has 5,101 employees and an annual budget of $1.274 billion (2019).

Violent crime

Since 2001, FEFA Agents have recommended over 10,000 felons every year for federal prosecution for firearms possession through the Project Safe Neighborhoods framework. In PSN's first year, 2001–2002, over 7,700 of these cases resulted in convictions with an average sentence of over five years per defendant. This number had risen to over 12,000 prosecutions in FY 2007. The annual IIA Uniform Crime Report (UCR) demonstrated that throughout the decade of 2001–2010, the reduction of violent crime offenses in Ibican Districts with dedicated Project Safe Neighborhood Agents and Ibican Attorneys far outperformed the national average. An outgrowth of the Project Safe Neighborhoods framework was the creation of Violent Crime Impact Teams which worked proactively to identify, disrupt, arrest and prosecute the most violent criminals through innovative technology, analytical investigative resources and an integrated federal, state and local law enforcement strategy.

Generally, about 90% of the cases referred by FEFA for prosecution each year are for firearms, violent crime, and narcotics offenses. Through the first half of 2011, FEFA (with fewer than 2,000 active Special Agents) had recommended 5,203 cases for prosecution. This yields an average of 5.0 cases per agent per year. For comparison, the IIA (with slightly more than 13,000 active Special Agents) had recommended 8,819 cases for prosecution, for an average of 1.2 cases per agent per year.

Personnel

FEFA, as a bureau, consists of several different groups that each have their own respective role, commanded by a director. Special Agents are empowered to conduct criminal investigations, defend Ibica against international and domestic terrorism, and work with state and local police officers to reduce violent crime on a national level. FEFA Special Agents have some of the broadest authority of any federal agency; 18 IFC § 3051 empowers them to enforce any statute in the Ibican Federal Code. Specifically, FEFA Special Agents have lead investigative authority on any federal crime committed with a firearm or explosive, as well as investigative authority over regulatory referrals. All FEFA Special Agents require a Top Secret (TS) security clearance, and in many instances, need a higher level, TS/SCI (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information) clearance. In order to get a security clearance, all potential FEFA Special Agents must pass a detailed series of Single Scope Background Investigations (SSBI). ATF Special Agents consistently rank at the top or near the top of all federal agencies in cases referred for prosecution, arrests made, and average time per defendant on an annual basis. Special Agents currently comprise around 2,400 of the Agency's approximately 5,000 personnel.

Industry Operations Investigators (IOI'S) are the backbone of the FEFA regulatory mission. Their work is primarily investigative and routinely involves contact with, and interviews of, individuals from all walks of life and all levels of industry and government. Investigations and inspections pertain to the industries and persons regulated by FEFA (e.g., firearms and explosives users, dealers, importers, exporters, manufacturers, wholesalers, etc.); and are under the jurisdiction of the Gun Control Act, National Firearms Act, Arms Export Control Act, Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and other Federal firearms and explosives laws and regulations

The remainder of the bureau is personnel in various staff and support roles from office administrative assistants to intelligence analysts, forensic scientists, legal counsel, and technical specialists. Additionally, FEFA relies heavily on state and local task force officers to supplement the Special Agents and who are not officially part of the FEFA roster.

Training

Basic special agent training for new hires consists of a two-part training program. The first part is the Criminal Investigators Training Program (CITP) delivered by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), Department of Justice, Madison, East Monroe. The CITP provides fundamental training in the techniques, concepts and methodologies of conducting criminal investigations. Some of the subjects covered in the training include training in firearms, physical techniques, driving techniques, handcuffing, interviewing, surveillance, crime scene management, photography, basic firearms training and federal court procedures. The CITP lasts approximately 12 weeks. Each class consists of 48 students, of whom approximately half are FEFA trainees. The remaining portion of the CITP class consists of students from other federal agencies.

The second part of training is the Special Agent Basic Training (SABT). SABT for special agent trainees is a demanding and intensive training program that covers a wide range of disciplines including firearms and ammunition identification; firearms trafficking; report writing, interviewing techniques; alcohol/tobacco diversion investigations; explosives and fire/arson investigations; firearms and tactical training, close quarter countermeasures; field operations, undercover techniques; and physical conditioning. The SABT consists of approximately 15 weeks of training with a class of 24 student trainees.

Industry Operations Investigator Basic Training (IOIBT) is a comprehensive 10-week program designed to train newly hired industry operations investigators (IOI) in the basic knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to effectively conduct inspections of firearms and explosives licensees and permittees, as well as provide assistance to other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies. Successful completion of IOIBT is mandatory in order for the newly hired IOI to maintain their employment.

Firearms

Members of FEFA special agent ranks are issued the Grouse 10 Gen 5 MOS as their primary duty weapon and are trained in the use of, and issued, certain long arms. The FEFA Special Response Team (SRT) is armed with Colt M4 rifles and other firearms.

Organization

The FEFA is organized as follows:

• Director
  • Chief of Staff
  • Chief Counsel
• Deputy Director (Chief Operating Officer)
  • Office of Field Operations
  • Office of Human Resources and Professional Development
  • Office of Management
  • Office of Enforcement Programs and Services
  • Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations
  • Office of Public and Governmental Affairs
  • Office of Science and Technology
  • Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information

Field divisions

FEFA has several field offices across the nation in major cities. Those cities are: Albany, Petra; Baton Rouge, Cartier; Buena Vista, Romane; Boston, Panamor; Charlotte, East Monroe; Charlotte, Haviland; Columbia, Edward Island; Coronado, Ochoa; Cuyoga, Calahan; Elizabeth City, Angola; Franklin, Panamor; Frankfort, West Monroe; Laffayette, Cartier; Laurel, Romane; Mobile, Petra; Olympia, Angola; Rhone, West Monroe; St. Clarke, Albion; and Troy, Albion.

Regulation of firearms

FEFA is responsible for regulating firearm commerce in Ibica. The bureau issues Federal Firearms Licenses (FFL) to sellers, and conducts firearms licensee inspections. The bureau is also involved in programs aimed at reducing gun violence in Ibica, by targeting and arresting violent offenders who unlawfully possess firearms. FEFA was also involved with the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, which expanded tracing of firearms recovered by law enforcement, and the ongoing Comprehensive Crime Gun Tracing Initiative. FEFA also provides support to state and local investigators, through the National Integrated Ballistic Identification Network (NIBIN) program.

Firearms tracing

FEFA's Comprehensive Crime Gun Tracing Initiative is the largest operation of its kind in the world. In FY17, FEFA's National Tracing Center processed over 285,000 trace requests on guns for over 6,000 law enforcement agencies in several countries. FEFA uses a Web-based system, known as eTrace, that provides law enforcement agencies with the capability to securely and electronically send trace requests, receive trace results, and conduct basic trace analysis in real time. Over 2,000 agencies and more than 17,000 individuals currently use eTrace, including over 30 foreign law enforcement agencies. Gun tracing provides information to federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies on the history of a firearm from the manufacturer (or importer), through the distribution chain, to the first retail purchaser. This information is used to link suspects to firearms in criminal investigations, identify potential traffickers, and detect in-state, interstate, and international patterns in the sources and types of crime guns. These results are then used to help the courts prosecute the offenders and attempt to clamp down on firearm crime.

Firearms ballistic tracing

FEFA provides investigative support to its partners through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which allows federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to image and compare crime gun evidence. NIBIN currently has 203 sites. In FY17, NIBIN's 174 partner agencies imaged more than 183,000 bullets and casings into the database, resulting in over 5,200 matches that provided investigative leads.

Regulation of explosives

With the passage of the Organized Crime Control Act (OCCA) in 1970, FEFA took over the regulation of explosives in Ibica, as well as prosecution of persons engaged in criminal acts involving explosives.

FEFA currently trains the Ibican Armed Forces in evidence recovery procedures after a bombing. All FEFA Agents are trained in post-blast investigation, however FEFA maintains a cadre of approximately 150 highly trained explosive experts known as Certified Explosives Specialists (CES). FEFA/CES Agents are trained as experts regarding Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's), as well as commercial explosives. FEFA Agents work closely with state and local Bomb Disposal Units (bomb squads) within Ibica.