Like many federal agencies, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is getting weaponized. A new report revealed the powerful agency has shelled out $10 million since 2020 on firearms, ammunition, and combat gear.
Government watchdog OpenTheBooks exposed the expenditures last week. Its records show the IRS spent $2.3 million on ammo, $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.
Another $1.3 million was doled out on other equipment for agents, including helmets, tactical lighting, holsters, and various accessories.
The full report, “The Militarization of Federal Bureaucracy — Updated Statistics Through March 31, 2023,” was released last Thursday.
Democrats want to send social workers to answer domestic police calls but arm IRS agents with fully automatic weapons. pic.twitter.com/A3eVodZmlP
— Guy Reschenthaler (@GReschenthaler) April 28, 2023
It is noteworthy that, prior to the 2020 shopping spree, the agency had stockpiled roughly 5 million rounds of ammunition for use by its over 2,100 special agents.
The IRS also previously possessed 4,500 firearms. Listed in their inventory were 621 pump action and semiautomatic shotguns, 539 semiautomatic rifles, and 15 submachine guns.
Dating back to 2006, the federal agency has spent $35.2 million inflation-adjusted dollars on weaponry and accessories, according to OpenTheBooks.
The watchdog’s revelations follow President Joe Biden’s shifting of tens of billions of dollars to the IRS through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. Thousands of new agents are expected to be brought on with the funding.
The IRS asserted that it needed the over $80 billion to pay for the hiring of 86,852 new employees and to streamline services over the next ten years. Republican critics argue the deluge of federal money will be utilized to put intense pressure on low- and middle-income taxpayers.
Some of the criticism came from the top. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blasted the massive allocation as funding the “Democrats’ army of 87,000 IRS agents.”
Prospective agents are given striking information by the IRS when they apply to the agency. They need to be willing to “carry a firearm [and] must be prepared to protect him/herself from physical attacks at any time without warning.”
Furthermore, they must be capable of using weapons in dire situations with force “up to and including the use of deadly force.”
