Subscriber Special - Militarization of America - now in The Wall Street Journal June 17, 2016 09:56 AM "Who are they [the feds] preparing to battle?" The Wall Street Journal | June 17, 2016 Why Does the IRS Need Guns? By Dr. Tom Coburn and Adam Andrzejewski | June 17, 2016 Click Here to read our Wall Street Journal column THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICA OPENTHEBOOKS OVERSIGHT REPORT Non-Military Federal Agencies Purchases of Guns, Ammunition,and Military-Style Equipment Fiscal Years 2006 - 2014 Click Here to Download a PDF copy of our Report Today, in The Wall Street Journal, our Honorary Chairman Dr. Tom Coburn and Founder/CEO Adam Andrzejewski break our oversight report on the militarization of our non-military federal agencies. We quantified $1.48 billion in non-military federal agencies purchase of guns, ammunition and military-style equipment during the last nine years. We found that there are more non-military federal officers with arrest and firearm authorization (200,000 ) than U.S. Marines (182,000). Who Has More Firepower? Share our info-graphic at RealClearPolicy, click here. Here are some more of our key findings: Sixty-seven non-military federal agencies spent $1.48 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment. Of that total amount, 'Traditional Law Enforcement' Agencies spent 77 percent ($1.14 billion) while 'Administrative' or 'General' Agencies spent 23 percent ($335.1 million). Non-military federal spending on guns and ammunition jumped 104 percent from $55 million (FY2006) to $112 million (FY2011) from high to low. Since 2004, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) purchased 1.7 billion bullets including 453 million hollow-point bullets. As of 1/1/2014, DHS estimated its bullet inventory-reserve at 22-months, or 160 million rounds. The Internal Revenue Service, with its 2,316 special agents, spent nearly $11 million on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent $11.66 million including more than $200,000 on 'night vision equipment,' $2.3 million on body armor, more than $2 million on guns and $3.6 million on ammunition. Please read our Wall Street Journal column, Why Does the IRS Need Guns?, read here. Download our OpenTheBooks Oversight Report - The Militarization of America, study here. Share in the conversation on our Facebook page: share here. JOIN THE TRANSPARENCY REVOLUTION. IT'S YOUR MONEY! Matthew Tyrmand Deputy Director Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-f-ski) Founder, OpenTheBooks.com Thomas W. Smith, Chairman PS. Our new video describes how our data and technology can help you stop government waste! Watch it here. Help fund our movement with a special Crowdfunding donation of $1, $50, $100, or more, please click here. $1 or more receives our OpenTheBooks bumper sticker $50 - $74 receives a cotton OpenTheBooks.com baseball cap $75 or more receives a hardcover copy of U.S. Senator (retired) Dr. Tom Coburn's book, The Debt Bomb. Together, we are a strong team. Please click here to help our mission. Back to news