Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill this week that would ban the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from purchasing any more ammunition, after having already reached an alarmingly high amount.
As reported by Just The News, Gaetz’s bill, the “Disarm the IRS Act,” would forbid the tax-collecting agency from buying ammunition after the agency has already acquired up to 5 million rounds. In 2022 alone, the agency has purchased at least $725,000 worth of ammo.
“I’m not against stockpiling ammunition,” Gaetz said, “but you shouldn’t have to be a D.C. accountant to do it; you ought to be a mechanic in Pensacola.”
Gaetz went on to say that the Biden administration wants to “disarm Americans, open the border, empty the prisons,” and “still collect your taxes,” and may use the massive stockpile of ammunition to do it by force.
The bill, which is cosponsored by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), would first have to pass through the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
“Why is Biden trying to weaponize the IRS?” Duncan tweeted in support of the bill. Rep. Gosar issued a similar statement saying that the bill was necessary in order to disarm “this band of highwaymen and stop them from taking our money under the threat of violence.”
Multiple reports have confirmed that the IRS has become increasingly militarized in recent years. In 2018, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that there were over 2,100 law enforcement officers working for the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division, armed with over 4,400 weapons and over 5 million rounds of ammunition. In 2020, the watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com revealed that the agency had spent over $21.3 million on firearms, ammo, and military-grade equipment between 2006 and 2019, with the gun stockpile reaching over 4,500.