The GCA of '68 also created the ATF, unelected civil servants who have been making law by regulation ever since.
The ATF was not created by the Gun Control Act of '68. It can actually trace its history as far back as 1886, as follows:
1886 - the Revenue Laboratory was created within the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue.
1920 - the Bureau of Prohibition was formed as a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
1927 - the Bureau of Prohibition was made an independent agency within the Treasury Department.
1930 - the Bureau of Prohibition was transferred to the Justice Department.
1933 - it became a division within the FBI.
1933 - with the repeal of Prohibition, the Bureau of Prohibition was renamed the Alcohol Tax Unit and once again became part of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
1942 - responsibility for enforcing federal firearms laws (the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Federal Firearms Act of 1938) was given to the ATU.
1951 - tobacco tax functions were transferred to ATU and the unit was renamed the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division.
1952 - the Bureau of Internal Revenue was renamed the Internal Revenue Service.
1968 - the ATTD became the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the IRS, with the passage of the Gun Control Act.
1970 - the ATFD was given responsibility over explosives.
1972 - ATF was established as a separate bureau within the Treasury Department, as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
2002 - the bureau was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Justice and was renamed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The related excise tax functions remained with the Treasury, under the new Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.