Obama Ramps Up Gun Control Rhetoric, Arms Federal Agencies to the Teeth
by Clinton Alexander
TheNewAmerican.com
Saturday, 09 July 2016
According to a recent report by openthebooks.com, non-military federal agencies have received $1.4 billion in “guns, ammunition, and other military style equipment during the last nine years.” Meanwhile President Obama continues to lead the assault via the White House “bully-pulpit” against individual citizens’ gun ownership and the Second Amendment.
Investopedia.com describes a federal agency in part as one “set up for a specific purpose such as the management of resources, financial oversight of industries or national security issues.” Examples include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, and Energy — all of which on the surface would appear to have no use for vast amounts of high-powered firearms and combat equipment.
One example of such federal agency militarization is the Internal Revenue Service. From 2006 to 2014, openthebooks.com documents that the IRS, “with its 2316 special agents, spent nearly $11 million on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment.”
Another example of the prolific arming of the federal government is the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a branch of the Agriculture Department — in essence a department full of biologists documenting human impact on plant species. The APHIS mission statement is “to protect the health and value of American agriculture and natural resources.” The last decade of APHIS expenditures reveals $4.7 million for high-powered weaponry and other military gear such as explosives and night vision goggles. One cannot help but wonder how seriously they must be taking their mission to “protect” the agriculture.
APHIS claims to need such equipment to protect their workers from feral swine (wild hogs). However, with $4.7 million in guns, propane cannons, ammo, and other military gear, it brings up the question: Just how many wild pigs do they anticipate confronting?
The report from openthebooks continues, “We estimate that federal non-military agencies now employ more officers with arrest and firearm authorization than there are U.S. Marines. There are 182,000 U.S. Marines and over 200,000 plus officers employed within the rank-and-file federal agencies.”
It would appear our country is safe from a “feral swine” uprising.
While federal agencies across the nation are increasingly being armed with myriad types of military-grade weaponry, President Obama has ramped up his cry to further limit the Second Amendment. After the recent terror attack in Orlando, he asserted, “This massacre is, therefore, a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or in a movie theater, or in a nightclub.”
However over the course of the past decade — increasing under the current administration — non-military government agencies have armed themselves more than at any other point in our nation’s history. According to the openthebooks.com report, during President George W. Bush’s last year, 2008, spending for these agencies topped out at $119.3 million. The year President Obama won re-election, 2012, spending for these agencies hit an astounding $224.7 million. Feral swine indeed.
The Rest…HERE
