ATF Officials Brief Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and ATF Director Steven M. Dettelbach on Efforts to Stem Gun Violence

ATF Special Agents in Charge noted that these strike forces have fostered cross-jurisdictional partnerships, cooperation and intelligence sharing among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement, and led to the ultimate disruption of trafficking corridors.

The strike forces represent one important, concrete step in implementing the Department’s Comprehensive Violent Crime Reduction Strategy, which was announced on May 26, 2021. The comprehensive strategy supports local communities in preventing, investigating, and prosecuting gun violence and other violent crime — and requires U.S. Attorneys’ offices to work with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement, as well as the communities they serve, to address the most significant drivers of violence in their districts.

In guidance to federal agents and prosecutors as part of that comprehensive strategy, the Deputy Attorney General made clear that firearms traffickers providing weapons to violent offenders are an enforcement priority across the country.