ATF is the chief enforcer of explosives laws and regulations in the United States and is responsible for licensing and regulating explosives manufacturers, importers, dealers, and users. ATF is also responsible for regulating most, but not all, explosives storage facilities. ATF’s regulatory authority over explosives stems from the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. This statute imposed controls over the importation, manufacture, distribution, and storage of explosives, and was the basis for giving ATF enforcement responsibilities for these controls. The Safe Explosives Act expanded ATF’s authority to generally require licenses for persons who purchase or receive explosives and background checks on licensees and their employees who handle explosives. Under federal explosives regulations, a license is required for persons who manufacture, import, or deal in explosives and, with some exceptions, for persons who intend to acquire explosives for use. No license is required solely to operate an explosives storage facility. However, all persons who store explosive materials (including state and local agencies) must conform with applicable ATF storage regulations, irrespective of whether they are required to obtain an explosives license for other purposes. State and local agencies are not required to obtain an explosives license to use and store explosives. Similarly, federal government agencies, the U.S. military, and other federally owned or operated establishments are exempt from compliance with both the licensing and the storage regulations. According to ATF data, as of February 2005 there were 12,028 federal explosives licensees in the United States. Roughly 7,500 of these had some kind of explosives storage facility, consisting of 22,791 permanent or mobile storage magazines. ATF storage regulations include requirements relating to the safety and security of explosives storage magazines—that is, any building or structure (other than an explosives manufacturing building) used for storage of explosive materials. Regarding safety, the storage regulations include requirements related to location, construction, capacity, housekeeping, interior lighting, and magazine repairs, as well as a requirement that the local fire safety authority be notified of the location of each storage magazine. Regarding security, the ATF storage regulations include the following requirements: Explosives handling. All explosive materials must be kept in locked magazines unless they are in the process of manufacture, being physically handled in the operating process of a licensee or user, being used, or being transported to a place of storage or use. Explosives are not to be left unattended when in portable storage magazines. Magazine construction. Storage magazines must be theft-resistant and must meet specific requirements dealing with such things as mobility, exterior construction, door hinges and hasps, and locks. Magazine inspection. Storage magazines must be inspected at least every 7 days. This inspection need not be an inventory, but it must be sufficient to determine if there has been an unauthorized entry or attempted entry into the magazines, or unauthorized removal of the magazine contents. Magazine inventory. Within the magazine, containers of explosive materials are to be stored so that marks are visible. Stocks of explosive materials are to be stored so they can be easily counted and checked. Notwithstanding the security requirements described above, ATF storage regulations do not require explosives storage facilities to have any of the following physical security features—fences, restricted property access, exterior lighting, alarm systems, or electronic surveillance. Also, while ATF licensing regulations require explosives licensees to conduct a physical inventory at least annually, there is no similar inventory requirement in the storage regulations applicable to other persons who store explosives. According to ATF data, the number of reported state and local government thefts is relatively small when compared with the total number of thefts that have occurred nationwide. For example, during a recent 3-year period (January 2002—February 2005), 9 thefts involving state and local government storage facilities were reported. Of these, 5 involved state and local law enforcement agencies (1 was later determined to be the possible result of training explosives that had been mistakenly discarded), 3 others involved state government entities (all universities), and the remaining incident took place at a county highway department. Two of the 9 incidents occurred in California (including last year’s theft that was mentioned previously), and no other state reported more than one incident. By comparison, during this same period, ATF received reports of 205 explosives thefts nationwide from all sources. Three states— California, Texas, and Pennsylvania—accounted for about one-quarter (53) of the total reported thefts nationwide. According to ATF officials, this may be due to the larger numbers of explosives licensees and storage magazines located in these three states. The amounts of explosives reported stolen or missing from state and local government facilities in each reported incident of theft are also relatively small when compared with the total amounts of stolen and missing explosives nationwide. For example, during a recent 10-month period for which data were available (March 2003 through December 2003), there were a total of 76 theft incidents nationwide reported to ATF, amounting to a loss of about 3,600 pounds of high explosives, 3,100 pounds of blasting agents, 1,400 detonators, and 2,400 feet of detonating cord and safety fuse. By comparison, over an entire 10-year period (January 1995—December 2004), ATF received only 14 reports of theft from state and local law enforcement storage magazines. In 10 of these incidents, less than 50 pounds of explosives was reported stolen or missing; while in 3 of the incidents, more than 50 pounds was stolen or missing. In 6 of these 14 cases, ATF data indicate that most or all of the explosives were recovered; in the other 8 cases, none of the explosives have been recovered. While the ATF theft data indicate that thefts from state and local facilities make up only a small part of the overall thefts nationwide, these reports may be understated by an unknown amount. There are two federal reporting requirements relating to the theft of explosives. One is specific to all federal explosives licensees (and permittees) and requires any licensee to report any theft or loss of explosives to ATF within 24 hours of discovery. The second reporting requirement generally requires any other “person” who has knowledge of the theft or loss of any explosive materials from his stock to report to ATF within 24 hours. Although the term “person” as defined in law and regulation does not specifically include state and local government agencies, ATF has historically interpreted this requirement as applying to nonlicensed state and local government explosives storage facilities. With respect to the second reporting requirement, according to ATF, the legislative history of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 indicates that Congress believed visibility over all incidents of stolen explosives was necessary to effectively enforce any federal explosives regulatory statute—primarily because of the special problems presented by stolen explosive materials and the persons possessing them. While ATF has interpreted the theft reporting requirement as applying to state and local government explosives storage facilities, ATF officials acknowledged that state and local government entities could be unsure as to their coverage under the theft reporting requirements. As a result, some state and local government entities may not know they are required to report such incidents to ATF, and this lack of information could impair ATF’s ability to monitor these incidents and take appropriate investigative action. Indeed, during our site visits and other state and local contacts, we identified five state and local government entities that had previously experienced an incident of theft or reported missing explosives—two involving local law enforcement agencies, two involving state universities, and one involving a state department of transportation. However, one of these five incidents did not appear in ATF’s nationwide database of reported thefts and missing explosives. Based on these findings, the actual number of thefts occurring at state and local government storage facilities nationwide could be more than the number identified by ATF data. With certain exceptions (such as for federal agencies), federal explosives law requires all persons who store explosives to conform to applicable regulations. However, there is no ATF oversight mechanism in place to ensure that state and local government facilities have complied with the regulations. With respect to private sector entities, ATF’s authority to oversee explosives storage facilities is primarily a function of its licensing process. However, the licensing requirements described in the law and regulations above do not apply to the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation of explosive materials to any state or its political subdivision (such as a city or county). That is, government entities, such as state and local law enforcement agencies, are not required to obtain a federal license to use and store explosives. In addition, ATF does not have specific statutory authority to conduct regulatory inspections at state and local explosives storage facilities. As a result, these facilities are not subject to mandatory oversight under ATF’s licensing authority or any ATF regulatory inspection authority apart from the licensing process. ATF may inspect state and local government storage facilities under certain circumstances—for example, if the operator of the facility voluntarily requests ATF to conduct an inspection. Since January 2002, ATF has conducted 77 voluntary inspections at state and local storage facilities—34 inspections at facilities that ATF shares with state and local agencies and 43 inspections at other state and local facilities. These inspections basically involve checking for compliance with federal storage regulations, including verifying proper construction of the storage magazine and verifying that the amount of explosives stored is consistent with the approved table of distances. In addition to conducting voluntary inspections, ATF also conducts inspections of state and local explosives storage magazines that are shared by ATF and a state or local agency. ATF currently shares space in 52 storage magazines, including 33 that are owned or leased by state and local agencies. Shared magazines are subject to mandatory inspections by ATF, and the inspection procedures are basically the same as those described above for voluntary inspections. According to ATF officials, no significant or systemic safety or security problems have been found during inspections of state and local storage magazines.