**Watchdog: IRS Has Spent $10M On Weapons, Ammo, & Combat Gear Since 2020**
Watchdog: IRS Has Spent $10M On Weapons, Ammo, & Combat Gear Since 2020
_Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,_ (https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/03/watchdog-irs-has-spent-10m-on-weapons-ammunition-and-combat-gear-since-2020)
Anew watchdog report reveals that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been **stockpiling $10 million worth of weapons, ammunition, and combat gear since 2020.**
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The _New York Post_ (https://nypost.com/2023/05/02/irs-has-spent-10m-on-weapons-ammo-and-combat-gear-since-2020-watchdog/) reports that the findings, released by the group OpenTheBooks, show the IRS spending $5 million in 2021 alone as the agency ramped up the militarization of its agents. In the last three years, the IRS has spent a total of $2.3 million on ammunition, $1.2 million on ballistic shields, $474,000 on Smith & Wesson rifles, $463,000 on Beretta tactical shotguns, and $243,000 on body armor.
In addition to these purchases, **the IRS’ expenditures include an additional $1.3 million that was spent on “various other gear for criminal investigation agents,” without any specifics as to what this “other gear” may entail.**
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The slew of new purchases build off of an arsenal that was already well-stocked prior to 2020, with the IRS already having in its possession **roughly 5 million rounds of ammunition designated for its 2,159 special agents.** Before 2020, the IRS owned 4,500 firearms, which included 621 shotguns, 539 semi-automatic rifles, and 15 submachine guns.
In conjunction with the spike in weapons purchases, **the IRS has been hiring significantly more agents in all 50 states.** In the job listing for new applicants, the agency notes that any potential applicants must be willing to “carry a firearm; must be prepared to protect him/herself or others from physical attacks at any time and without warning and use firearms in life-threatening situations; must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force.”
The weapon stockpiling and additional hiring comes after the IRS was given over $80 billion in new funding as a result of the highly-partisan Inflation Reduction Act, which was worth $739 billion overall.
The agency has since claimed that the $80 billion was necessary in order to hire nearly 87,000 new agents across the country over the next 10 years, which has **raised concerns among Republicans about the weaponization of an agency that has already been used to target conservatives in the past.**
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Wed, 05/03/2023 - 18:50
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watchdog-irs-has-spent-10m-weapons-ammo-combat-gear-2020