Just as the IRS wraps up this year’s tax season, a Republican-backed bill in the House seeks to strip guns and ammunition from the federal agency’s employees.
The Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act would bar the agency’s commissioner from using funds to buy, receive, or store firearms and munitions and would require that the administrator of general services take possession of the IRS’s existing weaponry.
According to the bill, the guns would be sold or auctioned off to licensed firearms dealers, and the ammunition would be auctioned off to the public.
The proceeds would then go into “the general fund of the Treasury for the sole purpose of deficit reduction.”
Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., introduced the legislation, which was cosponsored by Republican Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Mary Miller of Illinois, and Clay Higgins of Louisiana.
In a press release, Moore said the IRS has often been wielded against many different types of Americans.
“The IRS has consistently been weaponized against American citizens, targeted religious organizations, journalists, gun owners, and everyday Americans. Arming these agents does not make the American public safer,” Moore said in a statement.
“My legislation, the Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act, would disarm these agents, auction off their guns to Federal Firearms License Owners, and sell their ammunition to the public. The only thing IRS agents should be armed with are calculators.”
The measure also stipulates that “the authorities, functions, personnel, and assets of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service” shall transfer to the Justice Department and “shall be maintained as a distinct entity within the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, including the related functions of the Secretary of the Treasury.”
On its website, the IRS states that its “mission is to provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and to enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.”
In a Tuesday post on X, Moore said, “Tax Day is a great reminder that it’s time for the IRS to stop wasting our taxpayer dollars stockpiling guns and ammo.”
As part of the Trump administration’s across-the-board effort to reduce the size of the federal government, approximately 25% of the IRS workforce is set to resign from the agency after accepting buyout offers.
Following the Tuesday morning buyout deadline, approximately 22,000 employees, out of a total workforce of 90,000, have decided to resign.
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