Did you see this in the news? According to OpenTheBooks.com, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has spent over $10 million since 2020 on guns, ammunition, and other tactical gear. This appears to be a concerted effort to militarize the IRS, which should be concerning for every American.
Consider for a moment why the IRS would be undertaking such a huge effort to equip their “enforcement” agents with the latest military technology. What are they wanting to use all of those weapons for? Could we potentially see a day where a group of IRS agents knocks on our doors to “enforce” an in-person audit?
It turns out that under Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS was awarded more than $80 billion in additional funding, which the agency said they were going to use to hire more than 86,000 new employees in the next decade. Of course, not all of these employees for the IRS will become what the agency calls “Criminal Investigation Special Agents”, but even if a few thousand agents are given firearms, that looks like a small army to me.
The IRS wasn't the only government agency to bulk up on firearms, it turns out the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs, and even Health and Human Services have spent $3.7 billion since 2006 on everything from firearms to ballistic vests. Ask yourselves: why exactly do the VA and Health and Human Services need ballistic shields to carry out their duties?
While much remains unclear, it is plainly apparent that the federal government is busy arming many of its non-military agencies with military equipment. In fact, OpenTheBooks.com said that, “there are now more federal agents with arrest and firearm authority (200,000) than U.S. Marines (186,000). If you'd like to read more about the growing IRS army, please read this article from The Blaze. An excerpt of the article has been copied below:
“There are now more federal agents with arrest and firearm authority (200,000) than U.S. Marines (186,000),” the watchdog group’s report noted.
Since 2006, the IRS has purchased $35.2 million worth of guns, ammunition, and other tactical gear for its special agents. The agency ramped up its weapon purchases in 2020 and 2021, spending $10 million since the beginning of the COVID lockdowns.
OpenTheBooks.com’s report revealed a breakdown of the agency’s recent purchases, which showed that since 2020 the IRS spent $2.3 million on duty ammunition, $1.2 million on ballistic shields, $474,000 on Smith & Wesson rifles, $467,000 on tactical lighting, $463,000 on Baretta shotguns, $354,000 on tactical gear bags, $267,000 on ballistic helmets, and $243,000 on body armor vests.
