By: José Niño

Recently the IRS and the ATF teamed up to raid Highwood Creek Outfitters in Great Falls, Montana, where agents of the former agency seized hundreds of 4473 forms. Such a move outraged conservatives and other individuals who cherish the right to bear arms.

In response to this move, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst introduced a bill entitled “Why does the IRS Have Guns Act”. This legislation would ban the IRS from purchasing or storing guns and ammunition, transfer all IRS firearms to the General Services Administration where they could be subsequently auctioned off to licensed gun dealers to help pay off the country’s astronomical national debt, and place the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division under the direct control of the Justice Department.

“The taxman is fully loaded at the expense of the taxpayer,” Ernst declared in a statement. “As the Biden administration has worked to expand the size of the IRS, any further weaponization of this federal agency against hardworking Americans and small businesses is a grave concern. I’m working to disarm the IRS and return these dollars to address reckless spending in Washington.”

Lee Williams, the main editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project, noted that the IRS has been taking steps to de facto militarize itself. He observed the following:

“The IRS is preparing for battle. Some of the weapons and tactical equipment currently in their inventory are used by elite military commandos, not American law enforcement officers. To be clear, none of this extreme militarization occurred until after Biden took office.”

Adam Andrzejewski, the CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com, a government watchdog organization, asked “Who are they preparing to battle?”

“The IRS isn’t going to war, so just who are they preparing to battle? Our OpenTheBooks auditors found the IRS spent millions of tax dollars on AR-15 style rifles, semi-automatic shotguns, and even purchased submachine guns while stockpiling 5 million rounds of ammunition in their gun locker. The IRS special agent is starting to look less like a desk worker or rule maker and more like a SWAT team from a Hollywood thriller. It’s the blurring of the lines between a tax agency and traditional law enforcement,” Andrzejewski added.

“It looks like it’s for domestic tax and law enforcement objectives, but the IRS has blurred the lines between civil and administrative agencies, civil and administrative duties and federal law enforcement capability. After grabbing legal power, the IRS is amassing firepower. It’s time to scale back the federal arsenal,” Andrzejewski said to the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project.

In one of Andrzejewski’s recent investigations, he discovered that the IRS has spent $35.2 million on ammunition, firearms, and tactical gear since 2006. However, the agency’s spending on military gear has increased sharply under Biden’s watch.

Andrzejewski observed that these purchases included:

  • $2.5 million on ballistic shields and various other gear for criminal investigation agents
  • $1.3 million for tactical lights, tactical gear bags, ballistic helmets and body armor
  • Nearly $1 million on Smith & Wesson M&P15s and Beretta tactical shotguns
  • 3,000 tactical holsters for handguns with optical sights and weapon lights (As of this week, the IRS only has 2,100 armed agents.)

Dudley Brown, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights, offered his take on the militarization of the IRS and what it bodes for gun rights in America:

“If there’s one agency that has earned the disdain of every American, it’s the IRS. So, the fact that Biden is choosing to militarize this bureaucracy should be an outrage to citizens of every political affiliation. And no surprise, Biden has already dispatched his IRS stormtroopers to harass a ma and pop gun store in Montana, illegally seizing thousands of 4473’s. The obvious goal is for the IRS to work hand in hand with the ATF to seize gun records, compile a national gun registry, and inevitably proceed with an Australia-style gun confiscation program.”

The militarization of the IRS is an inevitable result of the never-ending growth of the DC Swamp. As the US government becomes more bureaucratized, its many tentacles will grow more corrupt and pose a greater threat to American freedoms.

In addition to repealing bad gun control laws on the books, gun owners will have to work to ensure that the federal government is downsized. All in all, a large, activist government is no friend of personal liberties.

José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.