The IRS is probably the least beloved department of the federal government. Even those who favor its existence still don’t really like it all that much, and most of the rest of us absolutely despise everything about it. That was true even before we found out about how many armed IRS agents they have running around.

A bill was introduced to disarm the IRS and have the guns sold to the general public.

That’s a good idea, of course, but the Independent Institute took that good idea and made it so much better.

For another reason the IRS should not have guns, taxpayers might recall the hearings on the “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” by the Senate Finance Committee in 1987. As testimony revealed, IRS bosses posted signs reading “seizure fever, catch it!” and rewarded agents who confiscated the most property.

Whistleblowers testifying behind a screen, a Newsweek report noted, “told of an IRS that is a virtual police state within a democracy, a Borgia-like fiefdom of tax terror at the heart of the U.S. economy.” Unlike other government agencies, the IRS “wields vast power with wide discretion in every American’s life, yet it endures no regular oversight.”

With a predatory, unaccountable enforcement division deploying firearms, the IRS could easily shoot first and avoid questions later, like the FBI in the case of Craig Robertson, gunned down in 2023 for threats against Joe Biden he allegedly made online. Selling off IRS guns and ammo could prevent such an outcome, but the measure might need fine-tuning.

All sales should be final, with no buybacks at any level, and not limited to the IRS. As the people should know, the federal Department of Education (ED), a legacy of the Carter administration, deploys an enforcement division armed with Remington Model 870 shotguns. Those guns would be better off in the hands of hunters and skeet shooters.

The federal government might also look to sell off surplus military firearms, altered for civilian use where necessary. As the U.S. Constitution makes clear, the people have the right to keep and bear arms, but why should an act aimed at deficit reduction be limited to guns and ammunition?  The people also have a right to property, but the federal government owns 80.1 percent of Nevada, 63.1 percent of Utah, 60.9 percent of Alaska, 52.3 percent of Oregon, and 45.4 percent of California.

Now, I’m not going to get into the sale of federal land here, though that might open up some interesting possibilities for hunting and fishing, but instead, I want to focus on the idea of federal guns being sold to the American citizenry.

Everything we’re seeing suggests that not just is disarming the IRS a good idea, but the same of most other departments in the federal government that seem to be armed for no good reason.

I mean, I get the Department of Energy having heavily armed response teams at nuclear power plants and NASA having heavily armed personnel, but the Department of Education? The IRS? Seriously?

Disarm them, sell those guns to the American people, and yeah, sell military weapons to us as well. I’m not a huge fan of them being modified for civilian ownership, personally, but I get that’s an easier sell to Congress. Not that it’ll happen, though, but it should.

We the People.

That’s what the Founding Fathers said. They saw us as the bulwark against tyranny, the ultimate arbiters of what is acceptable and what isn’t. When the law fails and the courts fail, it’s up to us. That means we need military-grade weapons.

And if they come from the same government, we know good and well they’re going to think twice before crossing that line.

If it also helps with the federal debt, well, so much the better.