Turns out the IRS isn't just looking to downsize its staff. Legislation being pushed by Sen. Joni Ernst (R - IA) would divest the IRS of millions of dollars of...
...what? Computers? Calculators? Pocket protectors and visors?
No, silly peasants. Firearms. The IRS is sitting on loads of hardware and ammo, and Sen. Ernst (among others) is trying to do something about it:
Ernst introduced the Why Does the IRS Needs Guns Act to reform how the agency handles firearms. The Iowa senator introduced the legislation after reports from Open the Books have suggested the IRS would one of the top 50 largest police departments based on its headcount and stockpiling of firearms and ammunition.
“Why is the IRS wasting millions of our tax dollars stockpiling guns and ammo?” Ernst asked rhetorically in a written statement.
She continued, “This is especially concerning, given the history of partisan witch hunts within the agency, and the fact it is more common for IRS agents to accidentally fire their weapon, than to do so intentionally. I am selling off the agency’s firearms, using the proceeds to pay down the bloated national debt, and recommending firearm safety courses for these tax collectors.”
That last paragraph caught my attention: The 2,100-odd armed IRS agents put the revenue bureau among the top 50 police departments in term of size.
And, according to Fox's Larry Kudlow, the arsenal is not trivial at all:
An Open the Books’ report shows that, even before the [Biden-era] $80 billion increase in funding, the IRS criminal investigation division was already heavily armed with a 4,600 gun stockpile, including 3,282 pistols, 621 shotguns, 539 rifles, 15 fully automatic firearms, 4 revolvers, 3.1 million rounds of pistol and revolver ammunition, 1.5 million rifle rounds and 367,000 shotgun rounds.
Now, its hard to choose what I find more disturbing about the story.
Is it (A) that the IRS feels any need to arm its agents, given the number of existent federal, state, county and local law enforcement bodies already out there?
Or is it (B) the apparent fact those agents do more shooting by accident than on purpose, and it's not even close:
“According to documentation provided by all 26 CI field offices, the NCITA, and the TIGTA OI, there were a total of eight firearm discharges classified as intentional use of force incidents and 11 discharges classified as accidental during FYs 2009 through 2011.”
Additionally, the audit found that that some special agents did not meet all of the firearms training or qualification requirements:
“Field office management did not always take consistent and appropriate actions when a special agent failed to meet the requirements because the guidance is vague. In addition, there is no national-level review of firearms training records to ensure that all special agents meet the qualification requirements.”
Read the whole thing; IRS firearms training would make Barney Fife look like Jack Bauer.
I'm going to go with (C): the most disturbing part is that the Federal government is so heavily armed at all. It's not just the IRS. The Feds have a lot of agents running around with guns.
Since 2006, 103 rank-and-file agencies outside of the Department of Defense (DOD) spent $3.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment (inflation adjusted to CPI). 27 of those agencies are traditional law enforcement under the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
However, 76 agencies are pencil-pushing, regulatory agencies, i.e. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Social Security Administration (SSA), Veterans Affairs (VA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and many other.
There are more armed federal agents than US Marines (200,000 to about 160,000).
Given the allegiance of so much of the Democrat party to the "Defund the Police" movement, I'll be interested in seeing how the Democrat votes break out on this, if it gets near the floor.
