I don’t know about you, but when I think of certain occupations, I just don’t think of those people needing guns for their jobs (we’re not talking about personal protection. We’re talking about as part of their job.).
Think about it. When would an accountant need a gun for his job? How about a pastry chef? Or a professional landscaper or mural artist? What, they don’t need guns in order to do their jobs (again, we’re talking about as part of their jobs, not about whether they carry for personal protection on their job)?
Well, how about IRS agents?
Yes, people working for the Internal Revenue Service who you have to deal with for tax issues. I imagine them as a bunch of people who fit the stereotype of a nerd (no offense to IRS agents. That’s just what I imagine), and whether that’s true or not, you have to ask, with the Department of Justice, including the FBI, available for muscle to back up enforcing laws, why in the world would the IRS need to buy guns for their agents?
Seems a little fishy too me.
And, I guess, at least one member of Congress thinks that it’s strange, too. Jack Phillips writes,
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) announced a bill Tuesday that would bar the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from providing arms and ammunition to agents with taxpayer money.
The measure would prohibit the federal tax agency from purchasing, receiving, or storing guns and ammunition, according to Ernst’s office. Under the bill, ammunition and firearms that are currently in possession by the IRS would be transferred to another federal agency, the General Services Administration, for auction.
“The taxman is fully loaded at the expense of the taxpayer,” Ernst said in a news release, adding that after the IRS has been expanded in recent years, “any further weaponization of this federal agency against hardworking Americans and small businesses is a grave concern.”
She added, “I’m working to disarm the IRS and return these dollars to address reckless spending in Washington.”
The measure would also relocate the armed wing of the IRS, the agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, within the Department of Justice.
Now, if this passes and is signed into law, would moving the IRS’s enforcement wing to the DOJ help to reduce government spending or lessen the pooliticalization that the IRS has been accused of since at least the Obama administration (and, maybe, before)? For the first question, it’s hard to say until it passes and is implemented. As for the second part, that’s questionable considering the recent allegations of rabid left-leaning partisanship in the DOJ since, at least, the Obama administration.
But, to be fair, this could be a move in the right direction. Because it seems pretty clear that the IRS shouldn’t be handing out guns to people who have a vested interest in extracting more money out of average, everyday taxpayers at gunpoint, if they have them.
