Ian Patrick, FISM News
If Americans weren’t already frightened of the Internal Revenue Service, they likely will be now.
According to a report from Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the IRS has stockpiled ammunition worth about $725,000 in 2022 alone. The Epoch Times reports that this is about 5 million rounds of ammo.
With this in mind, Gaetz introduced the “Disarm the IRS Act” in early July.
The proposed bill prohibits the IRS from acquiring “any ammunition after the date of” its enactment. It was cosigned by Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and currently sits in the House Ways and Means Committee.
In an appearance on Fox News on June 21, Gaetz told “Jesse Walters Primetime” about the report and his bill.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I thought the heaviest artillery an IRS agent would need would be a calculator,” Gaetz said. “I imagine the IRS in green eyeshades and cubicles, not busting doors down and emptying Glock clips on our fellow Americans.”
“When we used to talk about the IRS being ‘weaponized,’ we were talking about political discrimination, not actual weapons,” Gaetz continued. “I’m not against stockpiling ammunition, but you shouldn’t have to be a D.C. accountant to do it.”
Some of the cosigners also expressed their support on social media. Rep. Duncan took to Twitter to ask “Why is Biden trying to weaponize the IRS?”
Biden wants to disarm Americans & arm the IRS. In this year alone, the Biden IRS has stockpiled $725K+ in ammo as Americans face a shortage. Why is Biden trying to weaponize the IRS? This is why I cosponsored the "Disarm the IRS Act," to prohibit the IRS from purchasing ammo.
— Rep. Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) July 7, 2022
Meanwhile, Rep. Gosar retweeted a post from the Firearms Policy Coalition:
It's time we disarm this band of highwaymen and stop them from taking our money under the threat of violence.
Support the Disarm the IRS Act at https://t.co/zDNpa2Ktsv pic.twitter.com/S6yBIgMlBw
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) July 14, 2022
The bill has not yet moved from the House Ways and Means Committee, and the likelihood of it passing in the current Democrat-controlled House is “low” according to govtrack.us.
The possession of ammunition and firearms by the IRS is not totally out of left field. The service does maintain a Criminal Investigation division that employs law enforcement officers to investigate “violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes.”
A 2018 Government Accountability Office report shows that a large number of government agencies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and that the IRS spent an average of $600 thousand each year on ammunition.
IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jim Lee wrote in the division’s most recent annual report that the American people rely “on CI’s ability to investigate and recommend prosecution of criminal tax violations and other related financial crimes to the Department of Justice.”
“Criminal tax cases that are prosecuted and publicized provide a strong deterrent message to would-be tax evaders, helping to ensure the integrity and fairness in the U.S. tax system,” Lee added.