Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director B. Todd Jones announced Friday that he is resigning. Deputy Director Thomas E. Brandon will serve as acting director after Jones departs. NSSF was aware that Jones was planning to step down, his decision likely accelerated by the overwhelmingly negative public and Congressional response to the bureau’s now-withdrawn proposal to adopt a regulatory framework that would have banned 5.56mm M855 “green tip” ammunition. Jones was nominated by President Obama in January 2013 and confirmed in August of that year, the first ATF director in history to receive Senate confirmation. He had been acting director since August 2011 while also serving as U. S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Brandon was appointed deputy director of ATF in 2011 and has more than 26 years of experience with the bureau, serving as special agent in charge of the Phoenix and Detroit field divisions. See Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement. For perspective on the 5.56 ammunition issue read NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane’s latest blog post. And in related news:

• 23 STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL TELL ATF THEY OPPOSE THE BAN . . . The attorneys general of 23 states have jointly written ATF and while they applaud the bureau’s decision for now not to issue a new regulatory framework that would ban M855 ammunition, the letter leaves no doubt that they would oppose any bureau attempt to move forward. “…ATF’s justification for proposing the ban is arbitrary and, if followed to its logical end, could be used to ban a wide range of rifle ammunition,” the AGs’ letter states.

• PUBLIC COMMENTS TO ATF TOP 310,000 . . . ATF is now reporting that it has received more than 310,000 comments from the public on the agency’s now-withdrawn 5.56 mm ammunition proposal. By any standard, that response over such a relatively short period is truly overwhelming. NSSF thanks all those who contacted ATF and their members of Congress on this matter.
• ICE UNFREEZES RULE THAT AFFECTS HUNTERS GOING ABROAD . . . U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement  appears to have started enforcing a three-year old regulation that could have a serious impact on the hunting community.  Under a requirement that has not been enforced since it was imposed in 2012, Americans travelling overseas with a firearm must file paperwork using the government’s Automated Export System (AES) to register the “temporary export” of any firearm. The problem, which NSSF was the first to flag back in 2012, is that individual hunters cannot become certified by AES in order to file the necessary paperwork and obtain the required documentation that Customs is now requiring at the port of departure. With no national security purpose underlying this long-dormant requirement, NSSF is working toward a repeal of the regulation and will discuss the major concerns with State Department officials during a meeting this week.