[Former Oklahoma Senator Tom] Coburn and [Adam] Andrzejewski wrote that there are 200,000 non-Defense Department federal officers who are authorized to make arrests and carry firearms, which they noted exceeds the number of U.S. Marines. “In its escalating arms and ammo stockpiling, this federal arms race is unlike anything in history,” they wrote.
Coburn and Andrzejewski outlined several examples of head-scratching purchases by agencies in a nine-year period extending through 2014, including:
•The Internal Revenue Service, an agency with 2,316 special agents, spent almost $11 million on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment.
•The Environmental Protection Agency spent $3.1 million in the same areas, and poured nearly $800 million into its “Criminal Enforcement Division.”
•The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $11.66 million, including $200,000 on night-vision equipment and $2.3 million for body armor. The VA employs 3,700 law enforcement officers at its medical centers nationwide.
•The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spent $4.77 million on, among other things, shotguns, rifles, remote-control helicopters, night-vision goggles and liquid explosives.
The Smithsonian, the U.S. Mint, the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Social Security Administration … these are among the 67 agencies unaffiliated with the Defense Department that OpenTheBooks.com found have spent money to arm themselves in one way or another.
Coburn and Andrzejewski wrote that conservatives and progressives alike have raised an eyebrow about these expenditures, and with good reason. But the agencies themselves aren’t saying much of anything. The authors asked the IRS for an accounting of the agency’s guns and ammo by location and were told it didn’t have one.
“Our data shows that the federal government has become a gun show that never adjourns,” they wrote. “Taxpayers need to tell Washington that police powers belong primarily to cities and states, not the feds.”
[Keep reading. . .]
For the article referred to , see Tom Coburn, Why Does the IRS Need Guns? – WSJ. (subscription required)
I suppose these officials need self-defense too. I am struck, though, by the expansion of police power through all of these agencies. If someone violates the tax laws or refuses an animal inspection, shouldn’t the agency call the police or the FBI, instead of having its own police force?
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