Posted on 07/02/2016 2:10:05 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
The FDA is stockpiling military weapons and its not alone
AMERICAS 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 organizations 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 Transparencys 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.
Obama Bans Hiring Bias Against Ex-Cons Seeking Federal Jobs. problem solved
Perhaps President Trump will disarm these “non-traditonal” law enforcement agencies?
“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 suspect they are hiring thugs, Barney Fifes, and military never-were types for those “enforcer” positions.
Reminds me of my tag line:
have you seen the fema camps, shackle box cars, thousands of guillotines, stacks of coffins ~
And Trump and his people will not roll over and play dead in the face of a stolen election, as Romney and the RNC did in 2012.
“thousands of guillotines”
Ummm...huh?
4 am bump ...
thousands of guillotines
Ummm...huh?
Yes, indeed. SEARCH fema camps, guillotines -— read all about it.
Gasoline?
"Shoot anyone that doesn't look like you!"
"Too many people are in jail."
Clinton
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/clinton-us-has-too-many-people-in-jail-507995715558
..is MUCH faster!
Dark clouds on the horizon. Be prepared.
There’s only 200K agents....there’s 5x more armed citizens. Just an observation.
Correction...500x more armed citizens.
The Fedgov and Stategov guys are not stupid. They live in the same neighborhoods as we do, and they know the proles are not very happy right now.
That, and most if not all cops view all “civilians” as potential threats (I have many cops in my family, and this is not new). If they come to say, FR or DU, they are going to see a lot of hot heads spouting off.
In short, they are doing the same thing many here are doing. They are gunning up because the other side is gunning up. This is how civil wars start. Not with one side making a move, but all sides getting paranoid and worried enough that a little spark leads to an explosion. Except it would be an explosion with drones dropping Hellfire missiles in residential neighborhoods.
As sneakypete once related to local pd at a coffee shop, Thank you for storing my weapons until I need them.”
Quite by accident as I was being wheeled to the exit of a local hospital, I spotted the open arms locker momentarily revealed while a guard was leaving the office.
So the location of at least four M16/Ar15s plus other items is known.
Locate the security office door in ANY hospital and you can figure the same. Good starter kit.
;>)
I know some of those people.
They are scared. Terrified. They know if a conflict starts, they are on the list of a number of groups all around spectrum to be “eliminated”.
That ag inspector may not really have much to do with the stuff that gets people angry (though, if you are in ag, he sure does!), but if a full blow communist rebellion starts do you think that will save him? Or if a libertarian revolt goes up?
They know that people of all political leanings are not very happy with them. That means they are targets, and scared. That means if you have some extra money left at the end of the budget year, you arm up a bit to protect yourself and your family.
These purchases are driven by fear. The .gov types below the public eye are not stupid. They know what is bubbling up below the surface.
Why would they need guillotines, when they are so unwieldy?
Only to teach public lessons in consequences, and even then they wouldn’t need thousands.
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