Republican Senator Introduces 'Why Does the IRS Have Guns Act' to Disarm Agency

[Eupher]

Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has introduced pending legislation that would strip the Internal Revenue Service — which is tasked with administering the national taxation system and ostensibly has nothing directly to do with SWAT-style police work — of its impressive and terrifying stockpile of “military-style” weaponry.

Via the office of Joni Ernst (emphasis added):

Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is leading the charge to end the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) waste of taxpayer dollars to arm its agents.

The IRS has spent $35.2 million on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment since 2006, including $10 million in weaponry and gear since 2020. These purchases are used by the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division that has jurisdiction over federal tax crimes.

“The taxman is fully loaded at the expense of the taxpayer,” Ernst said. “As the Biden administration has worked to expand the size of the IRS, any further weaponization of this federal agency against hardworking Americans and small businesses is a grave concern. I’m working to disarm the IRS and return these dollars to address reckless spending in Washington.”…

The Why Does the IRS Have Guns Act would:

* Prohibit the IRS from buying, receiving, or storing guns and ammo,

* Transfer all guns and ammo currently in the IRS’ possession to the General Services Administration,

* Auction off these guns and ammo to Federal Firearms License owners and devote proceeds to deficit reduction, and

* Relocate the IRS Criminal Investigation Division within the Justice Department.

Ironic, is it not it, that the same Democrat Party hellbent on stripping law-abiding Americans of their “military-style” rifles appears to have no issue with arming government tax bureaucrats with these same weapons — and ballistic shields, body armor, and, reportedly, submachine guns?

Related: Government Services Increasingly Run by Automation

Via the New York Post (emphasis added):

The findings released last week by OpenTheBooks, a watchdog group that tracks government spending, reveal that in 2021 alone the IRS spent more than $5 million shoring up its arsenal for its increasingly militarized agents.

Since 2020, the oversight group found, the IRS has spent $2.3 million on ammunition, $1.2 million on ballistic shields, $474,000 on Smith & Wesson rifles, $463,000 on Beretta 1301 tactical shotguns and $243,000 on body armor vests.

A slew of other line-item expenditures – include a mysterious $1.3 million spent on “various other gear for criminal investigation agents.”

The tax-collecting agency has also loaded up on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tactical lighting, gear bags, holsters, ballistic helmets and optic sights for weapons since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.

Here is the Open the Books report.

According to reporting from The Gateway Pundit via Leo Hohmann, the IRS is also outfitting itself with .40-cal submachine guns just in case Mr. John Q Taxpayer gets a little too lippy for a handgun to calm him down.

Several years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture — another theoretically non-law enforcement governmental entity — similarly purchased submachine guns. Exactly for what, if not for using against American farmers, remains unclear.

Via WTKR, 2014:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s internal audit arm has 85 shiny new submachine guns, locked and loaded.

They’ve long had a small police force, and they’re not alone, thanks to a mostly forgotten provision in the behemoth 2002 Homeland Security Act that allows federal auditing agencies to equip themselves with agents who carry guns.

How many different cop agencies do we need? Just in D.C. alone, we have:

United States Marshals Service, founded September 24, 1789
United States Park Police, founded in 1791 as park watchmen to guard federal property in DC
United States Mint Police, founded in 1792
United States Capitol Police, founded in 1828
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, founded in 1861 (took the place of DC City Watch, founded in 1802)
United States Secret Service, founded July 5, 1865
District of Columbia Protective Services Division, founded by Congress in 1899 under the Watchmen in Municipal Facilities Act
Primary DC law enforcement (local and federal)

Patch of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department
District of Columbia Department of Corrections
District of Columbia Housing Authority Police Department of Public Safety (Has city-wide jurisdiction throughout Metropolitan area)
District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (local municipal police covering all of DC with approximately 3,800 officers)
District of Columbia Protective Services Division
District of Columbia Public Schools Police - Law Enforcement Division (has city-wide jurisdiction on 119 DCPS owned and leased properties)
District of Columbia Public Library Police
Metro Transit Police Department (has jurisdiction in Metro rail and near Metro bus stops in DC, VA, and MD; 526 officers)
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police (jurisdiction actually falls within specific locations in VA [Reagan National and Dulles airports]; formerly FAA Police)
United States Marshals (deputies at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia fulfill duties similar to those of a sheriff in local court matters, while deputies at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia perform more traditional and federal district court duties)
United States Park Police (national parks federal police for the National Mall, monuments, parkways, and all national park service properties in D.C and surrounding regions; several hundred officers; shares jurisdiction with D.C. Metropolitan Police in addition to exercising federal authority)
Washington National Cathedral Police (officers licensed by the MPD as special police officers)
Washington Humane Society Law Enforcement (charted by Congress in 1870 to enforce the Districts anti-cruelty laws)
Federal police agencies with a uniformed presence in District of Columbia area
Main article: Federal law enforcement in the United States

The majority of federal law enforcement agencies have some type of jurisdiction and/or headquarter offices in the District of Columbia; however, some are more overt than others.

Amtrak Police Department (quasi-federal, as Amtrak is government-owned)
Armed Forces Retirement Home Police (located in northwest District of Columbia; an independent, executive-level federal agency with a force of fewer than a dozen police officers and investigators; formerly known as the United States Sailor's and Airman's Home and the Soldier's Home; established in 1834)[citation needed]
Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police
Central Intelligence Agency Security Protective Service (Provides law enforcement and security services to CIA facilities in and around the District)
District of Columbia National Guard Military Police/Security Forces, if any (unique in that the DC Guard always answers to the President rather than to a governor)
Federal Bureau of Investigation Police (the FBI Police are the uniformed officers responsible for the protection of FBI facilities and employees)
Federal Bureau of Prisons (United States Department of Justice)
Federal Protective Service (tasked with protection of federal facilities not otherwise protected by other agencies)
Government Publishing Office Police (formerly Government Printing Office Police)
Military Police (active and reserve of the various United States Armed Forces): Military Police Corps (United States Army); Master-at-arms (United States Navy); United States Air Force Security Forces; USMC Military Police; and the United States Coast Guard and United States Coast Guard Police
Naval District of Washington Police (Responsible for the Washington Navy Yard, Joint Base Anacostia Bolling, Naval Research Lab, et al.)
Smithsonian Police and National Zoo Police (Smithsonian museums federal special police who maintain concurrent jurisdiction with the U.S. Park Police)
Supreme Court Police (Supreme Court Federal Police; under a hundred officers)
United States Capitol Police (Congressional Federal Police; many hundreds of officers)

This doesn't include the campus cops on the various universities in The Swamp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies_in_the_District_of_Columbia

The only thing I don't like about Senator Ernst's proposed legislation is taking those IRS cops and transferring them over to DOJ. This is exactly what GWB did when he came up with the Great Federal Agencies Swaperoo in the aftermath of 9/11 (you know, the turd sandwich called TSA being one example). The f'n government doesn't REDUCE bureaucracy -- it always INCREASES it or smears the feces with which it's created with floral essence to somehow make it more palatable.

[Old n Grumpy]

Next it will be the mailman and the garbage man 

[DefiantSix]

[REPLY REDACTED BY VRWC FOR OPSEC]

[FreeBorn]

My Father worked for IRS for 35+ years before he retired as a regional Special Proceedures Chief in the grade of GS-15. At no time in a career spanning almost 40 years did he ever have need for afirearm. As with all other US Government agencies dealing with the general public if there was need of any security involved this was provided by uniformed US Marshalls on scene. The IRS employees are essentially accountants, they are NOT cops. They do not make arrests. US Marshalls do so.

[Eupher]

My Father worked for IRS for 35+ years before he retired as a regional Special Proceedures Chief in the grade of GS-15. At no time in a career spanning almost 40 years did he ever have need for afirearm. As with all other US Government agencies dealing with the general public if there was need of any security involved this was provided by uniformed US Marshalls on scene. The IRS employees are essentially accountants, they are NOT cops. They do not make arrests. US Marshalls do so.

Zackly. Which begs the question -- why do accountants need other accountants with firearms? The fact is, they don't. It's all about increasing the oppression of the federal government. NO OTHER REASON.