Why Is The Government Arming More Federal Bureaucrats Than US Marines?
BY PGF
2 years, 1 month ago
The idea that agencies are empowered to effectively create their own laws and go out and enforce them with armed federal agents should be alarming.
A report issued last year by the watchdog group Open The Books, “The Militarization of The U.S. Executive Agencies,” found that more than 200,000 federal bureaucrats now have been granted the authority to carry guns and make arrests — more than the 186,000 Americans serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. “One hundred three executive agencies outside of the Department of Defense spent $2.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between fiscal years 2006 and 2019 (inflation adjusted),” notes the report. “Nearly $1 billion ($944.9 million) was spent between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 alone.”
The watchdog reports that the Department of Health and Human Services has 1,300 guns including one shotgun, five submachine guns, and 189 automatic firearms. NASA has its own fully outfitted SWAT team, with all the attendant weaponry, including armored vehicles, submachine guns, and breeching shotguns. The Environmental Protection Agency has purchased drones, GPS trackers, radar equipment, and night vision goggles, and stockpiled firearms.
A 2018 Government Accountability Office report noted that the IRS had 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition in inventory at the end of 2017 — before the enforcement funding boost this year. The IRS did not respond to requests for information, though the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division does put out an annual report detailing basic information such as how many warrants the agency is executing in a given year.
Somebody should tell The Federalist that the anti-federalists were right.
Via WoG
On November 22, 2022 at 12:25 am, Dan said:
The Fed Gov views ‘we the people’ as a much bigger threat to their grasp on power than any foreign entity. Thus they arm THEIR people to counter that threat. The Marines etc. are forbidden to be used on American soil under most circumstances….legally. As if the criminal left actually cared about legal.
On November 22, 2022 at 1:40 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “One hundred three executive agencies outside of the Department of Defense spent $2.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment between fiscal years 2006 and 2019 (inflation adjusted),” notes the report. “Nearly $1 billion ($944.9 million) was spent between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 alone.”
Someone like Senator Rand Paul ought to grab ahold of this issue and demand that the federal government audit these purchases to see that the items requisitioned are still in possession of the agencies which purchased them. It seems a fair question to ask, considering that the hard-pressed American taxpayer paid for all of this largess, and that the billions in weapons and gear abandoned in Afghanistan have already started to show up in the underworld and weapons black-markets on the dark-web.
These questions are also germane considering that the Obama regime (of which Joe Biden was a part) engaged in what amounted to gun-running for eight years, first with Operation Gun Walker, a.k.a. Fast and Furious, then in Benghazi when the CIA and various intermediaries and cutouts ran guns from the late Colonel Gaddafi’s arms warehouses to jihadist groups in Syria, and finally the crowning glory as it were, of Joe Biden abandoning billions of dollars in U.S. arms, ammo, equipment and ordnance to the Taliban and the Pakistani ISI, amongst others.
Of course, when big-shot political leaders engage in gun-running, one isn’t supposed to call it that… but that is precisely what it is.
Senator Paul et al. should also inquire for what purpose these massive ammo and weapons buys are intended: Is the federal government gearing up for war? Sure as heck looks that way!
And it is beyond ridiculous that all of these various agencies have their own private armies and SWAT teams. This is in fact the standing army come-to-life the Founders so dreaded…
On November 22, 2022 at 1:47 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Dan
Re: ” The Marines etc. are forbidden to be used on American soil under most circumstances….legally.”
Just a minor point: Posse Comitatus is traditionally not-applied quite as forcefully to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, since the Founders viewed these services as vital to a nation with so much coastline to defend. It is applied, but the law was especially intended to prevent the army from operating on American soil, in reflection of the fact that the British crown quartered British Army soldiers, “Redcoats,” in colonist’s homes during the years leading up to the War of Independence.
Of course, over the ensuing two centuries and more of national life, the statutory force of the original law has been diluted significantly, and it is now routine to see U.S. military assets deployed for disaster relief, etc. on American soil, not just the Army and Air National Guard, but all of the services. The Patriot Act weakened that rule further, so it is a fair question to ask if posse comitatus even applies any longer.
On November 22, 2022 at 6:54 am, Wes said:
“Somebody should tell The Federalist that the anti-federalists were right.”
Heh, there’s some meat on the bone.
On November 22, 2022 at 12:45 pm, scott s. said:
Well, you can thank Geo Washington, who authorized the army to go after the whiskey rebellion. And I think the Insurrection Act “trumps” Posse Comitatus.
On November 23, 2022 at 8:19 am, J said:
On November 22, 2022 at 6:54 am, Wes said:
“Somebody should tell The Federalist that the anti-federalists were right.”
Glad to finally see that someone else reads the Anti-Federalist papers.
On February 18, 2023 at 8:43 pm, Ol’guy said:
Ahhhhh….
A Built In ….Federalized Police Force.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/05/03/baltimore-federal-drugs-evidence-fbi-column/26830873/