Posted on 07/02/2016 2:10:05 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
The FDA is stockpiling military weapons — and it’s not alone
AMERICA’S GUN CULTURE has been a subject of intense interest and controversy for years, with concerns frequently raised about shadowy militias, paramilitary extremists, and unstable zealots in possession of alarming quantities of explosives and firearms.
Amid the current din over assault weapons and body armor, consider one domestic organization’s fearsome arsenal of military-style equipment.
In the space of eight years, the group amassed a stockpile of pistols, shotguns, and semiautomatic rifles, along with ample supplies of ammunition, liquid explosives, gun scopes, and suppressors. In its cache as well are night-vision goggles, gas cannons, plus armored vests, drones, and surveillance equipment. Between 2006 and 2014, this organization spent nearly $4.8 million to arm itself. Yet its aggressive weapons buildup has drawn almost no public attention.
Does all this firepower belong to a jihadist terror cell? A right-wing hate group? A vicious urban gang?
None of the above. It is the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency of the US Department of Agriculture, that has built up such a formidable collection of munitions. And far from being an outlier, it is one of dozens of federal agencies that spends lavishly on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment.
A report issued this month by American Transparency, a nonpartisan watchdog that compiles data on public expenditures, chronicles the explosive — and expensive — trend toward militarizing federal agencies, most of which have no military responsibilities. Between 2006 and 2014, the report shows, 67 federal bureaus, departments, offices, and services spent at least $1.48 billion on ammunition and materiel one might expect to find in the hands of SWAT teams, Special Forces soldiers — or terrorists.
The largest share of that spending has gone to traditional law enforcement agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the US Secret Service. But the arms race has metastasized to federal agencies with strictly regulatory or administrative functions. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, now spends more than $1 million annually on firearms, ammunition, and military gear, double what it was spending a decade ago. Since 2006, the Department of Veterans Affairs — which has been sharply criticized for episodes of fatal incompetence in patient care — has poured nearly $11.7 million into guns and ammo. Even the Smithsonian Institution and the Social Security Administration have each devoted hundreds of thousands of dollars to weaponry.
Incredibly, there are now fewer US Marines than there are officers at federal administrative agencies with the authority to carry weapons and make arrests. The soaring growth of this federal arsenal alarms Adam Andrzejewski, the head of American Transparency’s OpenTheBooks.com, which researched and assembled the new report. “Just who,” he asks, “are the feds planning to battle?”
Arguments long and loud about all the deadly firepower in the hands of private US citizens regularly engage liberals and conservatives. Far less notice has been paid to all the deadly firepower in the hands of federal bureaucrats. “The government itself has become a gun show that never adjourns,” remarks former US senator Tom Coburn. Dozens of federal agencies — entities that will never be called on to fight foreign enemies — now pack heat at unprecedented levels. Perhaps that, too, is something Americans should be arguing about.
Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeff_jacoby.
They gotta be well armed to raid those heavily armed Amish Milk Barns...
Anymore all I see in these stories is how the republican house funds the liberal agenda.
They would need arms to confiscate food, food stores, ranches and farms. Remember when the census bureau asked Americans if they grew food and they also tried to locate those who had bought stockpiles of food - preppers.
Why Obama and his commies would want plans for taking over the Nation’s food supplies is beyond my pay grade. : )
"They're dealing machine-guns. They're robbing banks. They're making narcotics. They're beating babies..."
ALL OF IT WAS FALSE.
I'm a few years ahead of you! Why celebrate a corrupt, inept, and thieving system? I'll put a flag out when the Constitution is restored (which is unlikely in my lifetime).
I have a good idea who....
“The Great ObamaNation” said at the very beginning of his reign that he wanted a civilian army just as big and just as powerful as the regular army. Now that the Army has been pared down how many civilian federal employees are now under arms?
Why the need for stockpiling weapons ... think refugee / invading army ... they will need to be armed when its time for the coup
“I have a hard time believing an agriculture inspector, IRS lawyer or the like , with a wife, 3 kids, home in the ‘burbs is going to risk his life enforcing. Something he never signed up for.”
I can assure you that your gut feeling is right.
81% of the military support Trump.
If Trump were to miraculously be elected, These wannabe thugs should all be demoted to dog-catchers, in my opinion. But, then again, they might just shoot the dogs in that case.
have a hard time believing an agriculture inspector, IRS lawyer or the like , with a wife, 3 kids, home in the ‘burbs is going to risk his life enforcing. Something he never signed up for.
Well they have the guns; all they need is humans to wield them. Isn’t it a fact that they are importing humans from the mid east? Would such people suffer from any compunction to war? Hell, it’s all they know now.
Do the math... As I wrote here when Fast and Furious brok: Anyone who would plan and impliment FF is capable of ANYTHING.
You never know when a FDA agent will be inspecting a farm, bakery or drug laboratory and be attacked by a crazed farm animal, a sugar high baker or a drug manufacturer high on what he is making.
None of these agencies need guns. Most of them shouldn’t even exist in the first place.
This stuff started back during the Clinton administration. Our government is committed to ending all private ownership of firearms, yet just about every two-bit bureaucrat can be armed to the teeth on the taxpayers dime. Citizens had better start organizing, and preparing. There are dark sails on the horizon.
We need to find their caches. We’ll need them.
It’s one way around the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of federal troops against Americans. Just don’t call them troops — call them “federal law enforcement”.
And even with all those guns they’re still so afraid of us they’re desperate to take our guns away from us.
81% of the military support Trump.
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And 81% of their ballots will be lost or delayed until long after the election.
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