Essay Example on Gun Control: Agency Formation & Political Implications

Introduction

Nations and states have tried to control the acquisition and use of firearms, but few have reported significant success. Gun control is now close to a universal issue with different organizations, agencies, groups, and movements starting up in attempts to control gun violence and consequently reduce crime rates; hence, saving lives. Below follows a detailed discussion of how the organization of an agency concerned with gun control and the political environment within which the agency resides impacts its effectiveness in dealing with issue thereof. The agency involved in this discussion is the Bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

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The Organizational Structure of ATF

The organization structure of ATF takes the typical hierarchical arrangement in which different departments under the head director take up various duties and responsibilities (https://www.atf.gov/). The primary goal of this organization is to protect the public against violence and harm resulting from the illegal manufacture, distribution, or ownership of firearms as well as explosives (https://www.atf.gov/). Its departments are such that each relates with the other for the ultimate realization of their primary objective. For instance, the office of strategic intelligence and information works in conjunction with the office of science and technology to ensure that all claims collected through the different channels of communication are investigated and validated after which the outcomes can be put through to the next step.

The department of field operations and that of the enforcement programs and services, together with the department of professional responsibility and security operations are linked such that the responsibilities and duties of one bring about those of the other. Field agents collect information on the performance of, for example, initiatives aimed at gun control and how the public is responding. Also, the managerial department oversees the operations of all other departments while the human resource department ensures that each department works towards the accomplishment of set goals and objectives.

Ways in which ATF's Human Resource Management Impacts Gun Control

Human resource management is an instrumental aspect of any organization. More so, one involved with a critical issue as gun control. For ATF, just like any other organization, the productivity and performance of all different departments are dependent on the efficiency of the human resource department. It is this department that provides others with the morale and motivation to keep going despite the agonizingly slow progress realized on the gun control issue. For several years, laws and policies put in place for the regulation of gun violence have produced little change which was mostly assumed because the exact influence has not been determined through studies and extensive research (Siegel, Pahn, Xuan, Ross, Galea, Kalesan, & Goss, 2017). It is, therefore, the work of this department to ensure that all others do not lose sight of their primary objectives.

By ensuring that employees are always up to date with current and emerging trends on the gun control issue through proper dissemination of information. Also, seeing to it that the employees are adequately trained on how to deal with gun control issues and crises. For instance, field operations agents should be informed on how to educate and positively impact on organizations and industries dealing with gun manufacture and distribution. Encouraging employees to strive to better their skills, for example continually, investigative allows for quality information assembly and hence, better analysis of claims. Such include the reported case of suicide with a newly acquired firearm in New Hampshire (Vriniotis, Barber, Frank, Demicco, & New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition, 2015). Properly trained agents can gather the necessary information to be used for the validation or disregard of the claim. However, when human resource management is weak, the whole organization becomes chaotic and productivity declines because objectives are not being accomplished.

Ways in which the Budgeting at ATF affects Gun Control

In stride to accomplish their mission of protecting the public against the illegal acquisition and use of firearms, ATF has made significant adjustments to their budget. In their strategic plan of the years between 2017 and 2022, ATF has allocated resources to be used to further research on gun violence as well as investigating and neutralizing the threat to public safety resulting from trafficking and illegal use of firearms (https://www.atf.gov/). This will significantly affect the statistics positively related to gun control. ATF also plans to employ the use of effective gun violence control techniques to solve this problem.

Management Challenges for Gun Control from Political Responsiveness

A positively charged political environment favours the management in the enactment of policies that resonate with its objectives regarding gun control. However, the administration is put in a wrong position when it comes to gun control because firstly, not all people in power, for instance in Congress, agree with the gun rights and regulations policies (Spitzer, 2015). This makes it difficult to conduct operations in some states. Secondly, the management at ATF collaborates with political figures in information sharing to enable adequate measures for gun control. Some of these individuals are only using gun control to fuel their ambitions and do not offer any plausible help to ATF and other bodies concerned with gun violence eradication.

References

Siegel, M., Pahn, M., Xuan, Z., Ross, C. S., Galea, S., Kalesan, B. ... & Goss, K. A. (2017). Firearm-related laws in all 50 US states, 1991-2016. American Journal of Public Health (ajph).

Spitzer, R. J. (2015). Politics of gun control. Routledge.

Vriniotis, M., Barber, C., Frank, E., Demicco, R., & New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition. (2015). A Suicide Prevention Campaign for Firearm Dealers in New Hampshire. Suicide and LifeThreatening Behavior, 45(2), 157-163.

https://www.atf.gov/