Sen. Ernst: Disarm the IRS

Why do paper-pushing tax collectors at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) need guns? That’s the $35 million-dollar question. 

Since 2006, the IRS has doled out more than $35 million of your tax dollars for firearms, ammunition, and tactical gear, including $10 million in weaponry and equipment since 2020 alone. You’d think this federal agency was preparing for battle!

We saw in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” the Democrats’ intent on expanding the power and size of the IRS, increasing its funding by $80 billion. Weaponizing this agency threatens Americans’ wallets, and when agents are armed to the teeth, our lives and property. 

According to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, special agents at the IRSaccidentally fired their weapons more often than they intentionally fired them. And to make matters worse, the Inspector General could not determine if these IRS agents completed their “required” training. 

Still, the IRS is hiring in all 50 states, looking for agents who “must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force.”

Americans should be gravely concerned that the IRS is armed, loaded, and coming after them. Especially given the agency’s history of conducting armed raids on innocent Americans. 

That’s why I’m leading the Why Does the IRS Have Guns Act. This effort would disarm the IRS, auction off their guns to Federal Firearms License owners, and sell their ammo to the general public. The proceeds from these sales would go directly to paying down our ballooning national deficit. My bill would also relocate the IRS Criminal Investigation Division within the Justice Department, where it would work alongside other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and DEA.

Anyone with an ounce of commonsense knows that IRS agents shouldn’t be playing SWAT team dress-up on the taxpayer's dime! As the Senate’s biggest foe of wasteful spending, I will continue shining a light on Biden’s weaponized and oversized IRS. Between wasting money on guns, going after our small businesses, and evading their own taxes, there is plenty more to expose. It’s time to disarm the taxman and end this abuse of power and tax dollars.