18 U.S.C. § 925D — Special assistant U.S. attorneys and cross-deputized attorneys

(a) The Attorney General may appoint certain lawyers to help enforce the gun bans in section 922(g)(8) and (9). These lawyers can be state, tribal, territorial, or local prosecutors. They can also be government lawyers who already work for the United States. The Attorney General names them special assistant United States attorneys. They may then prosecute violations of those gun bans. The Attorney General may also deputize local police officers. This helps ATF agents investigate violations of the same gun bans. (b) The Attorney General must find at least 75 areas with high rates of gun violence against intimate partners. These can be states, territories, or tribal areas. They must be places where local authorities lack the resources to respond. The Attorney General must make appointments in these areas to cut gun deaths and injuries. The Attorney General must also set up contact points. One contact point goes in each ATF field division. Another goes in each U.S. Attorney's district office. These contacts speed up help for local police. The police are investigating cases of violence against intimate partners tied to the gun bans. (c) In this section, "qualified" means a licensed attorney in good standing with the relevant licensing group.

The source credit indicates that this section was added by Public Law 117-103, Division W, Title XI, § 1103(a), enacted March 15, 2022, and published at 136 Stat. 921. The record reflects no subsequent amendments to the section since its enactment; the single citation in the source credit accounts for its entire legislative history to date. Public Law 117-103 is the consolidated appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2022, a large omnibus measure that, as is common with such vehicles, incorporated numerous freestanding policy provisions alongside government funding matters. Division W of that law is generally understood to contain the text of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, legislation enacted in 2022 in response to a series of mass shootings that intensified public and congressional attention to firearms policy that year. That broader act is commonly described as addressing gun violence through measures including enhanced background checks, funding for mental health and school safety programs, and provisions aimed at closing enforcement gaps related to domestic violence and firearms possession. Beyond this general context, the record does not establish the specific legislative rationale behind § 925D's creation of special assistant U.S. attorney and cross-deputization authority tied to enforcement of section 922(g)(8) and (9). No committee reports, sponsor statements, or floor debate materials are included in the supplied source credit, and none should be assumed. The precise administrative or enforcement concerns that prompted this particular provision are not documented here.