Tom Chittum currently serves as the Acting Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, the 2nd highest official of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Tom previously served as Assistant Director of Field Operations from October 2019 to June 2021, and was responsible for ATF’s investigative, law enforcement, and regulatory field operations nationwide. He was previously Deputy Assistant Director, Field Operations – Western Region. Tom’s previous supervisory assignments include Special Agent in Charge of the Washington (DC) Field Division; Chief, Special Operations Division; Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Seattle Field Division; Special Agent in Charge, Internal Affairs Division; Chief of Staff, Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations; Chief, Frontline Branch; and Resident Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Field Office.

Tom’s law enforcement career began in his home state of West Virginia in 1997 as a special agent with the IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division. He joined ATF in the Miami in 1999. He worked in the Louisville Field Division from 2002 until 2008. He was a member of the Enhanced Undercover Program from 2006 to 2008. From 2005 to 2012, he regularly testified as an expert on the interstate nexus of firearms and how firearms facilitate the illegal drug trade.

Tom has a BA in Criminal Justice from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia; an MS in Criminal Justice from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky; and a JD from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He is an attorney, licensed in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. As an Adjunct Law Professor, Tom teaches a course on Firearms Law and the Second Amendment at UNLV. He lives with his wife and three children in Virginia.