will be packing heat — and how many of us will they target?
IRS agents will be supplied with an arsenal of guns and ammunition thanks to new legislation.AP/Charles Dharapak
An audit notice from the IRS is scary. Up to 87,000 more IRS agents in the “Inflation Reduction Act” President Joe Biden signed Tuesday is troubling. And the IRS stockpile of 4,600 guns and 5 million rounds of ammunition is downright unnerving.
How many of the new agents will be packing heat? Democrats won’t say.
The IRS arsenal of 4,600 guns includes 3,282 pistols, 621 shotguns, 539 rifles, 15 fully automatic weapons and four revolvers. It’s unclear who agents plan to shoot at. A recent IRS job posting says applicants must “be willing to use deadly force.”
Democrats voted in lockstep to take $80 billion from taxpayers to supersize the IRS. A possible 87,000 new agents are a force larger than the combined personnel on all 11 US aircraft carriers. Four times the number of Border Patrol agents. Enough to fill every seat in Madison Square Garden four times.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed the controversial Inflation Reduction Act.AP/Susan Walsh
Why does the IRS have guns and play police officer? The agency got into the policing business in 1919 and over time became abusive, conducting armed raids on innocent small businesses exposed in 1997 and 1998 congressional hearings.
Democrats won’t tell you there are significant criminal-justice ramifications to giving the IRS this much money and power.
As inspector general reports detail, the IRS doesn’t respect your privacy or the concept of due process. Evidence-handling practices are abysmal. Handing the IRS a huge pile of cash won’t change the agency’s culture.
The IRS’s official government watchdog, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, has flagged severe problems with IRS gun management in numerous audits over the years