The IRS spent years targeting Tea Party groups and calling it routine.
New federal spending data shows exactly what the agency has been doing with your money since then.
What they bought – and what they quietly deleted after being exposed – is something every American needs to see.
Federal spending data published by OpenTheBooks.com shows 60 agencies bought military equipment in fiscal year 2025, spending $448 million in total.
The Social Security Administration spent $630,471 on handguns, bullets, and armored vests.
The U.S. Mint spent $193,545 on guns and ammunition.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – the weather agency – bought 180,000 rounds of ammunition for $130,688.
The Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services ordered "brand name only" 12-gauge shotguns.
The IRS dropped $2.6 million on military-style equipment in fiscal year 2025 alone – including $933,992 on body armor – on top of the AR-15-style rifles, Beretta tactical shotguns, and 15 submachine guns already documented in its arsenal by OpenTheBooks.
This isn't new.
Since 2006, non-defense federal agencies have spent $3.7 billion on guns, ammunition, and military equipment, according to OpenTheBooks.com.
The government now employs more than 200,000 federal agents with arrest and firearm authority – a number that exceeds the entire United States Marine Corps.
Biden Gave the IRS $80 Billion and They Posted a Job Listing Requiring Agents to Use Deadly Force
Biden made it dramatically worse.
Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 with Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking Senate vote, handing the IRS $79.6 billion – $45.6 billion of it for enforcement.
They said it was about catching billionaire tax cheats.
Then the IRS posted a job listing requiring Criminal Investigation special agents to "carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary."
America noticed.
The posting went viral and the IRS quietly deleted it.
The agency never answered a single question about why.
Between 2020 and 2021 alone – before the Inflation Reduction Act money even arrived – the IRS spent $10 million on weapons and gear, including $474,000 on Smith & Wesson AR-15-style rifles, $463,000 on Beretta 1301 tactical shotguns, and $2.3 million on ammunition.
Adam Andrzejewski, the forensic auditor at OpenTheBooks who has tracked this spending for two decades, asked the question every taxpayer should be demanding their congressman answer: "Just who are the federal agencies preparing to battle?"
The Treasury Inspector General Found IRS Agents Fired Their Guns More by Accident Than on Purpose
The Treasury Inspector General audited the IRS weapons program and found something that should end the argument about whether this agency deserves more firepower.
IRS agents accidentally fired their weapons more often than they intentionally fired them.
Over a three-year stretch, agents pulled the trigger by accident more times than they meant to – and at least three of those incidents left behind property damage or injured someone.
The IRS concealed the incidents rather than reporting them as required.
The Inspector General also found the agency couldn't confirm whether agents had completed their required firearms training – and agents who missed training faced almost no consequences.
These are the people Biden handed $80 billion.
Republicans Introduced the Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act and Never Called the Vote
Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama introduced the Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act in 2025.
It would have banned the IRS from buying weapons, auctioned the stockpile to licensed dealers, sold the ammunition to the public, and moved the IRS Criminal Investigation Division to the Justice Department where it belongs alongside the FBI and DEA.
Reps. Harriet Hageman, Mary Miller, and Clay Higgins co-sponsored it.
It never got a floor vote.
Trump Is the Only One Who Acted
Trump has already cut the IRS workforce by 27 percent and proposed slashing the agency's budget by $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2027.
He is also personally suing the IRS for $10 billion after an agency contractor leaked his tax records – because he knows better than anyone what this agency does to abuse its power.
Biden built an IRS that posted job listings requiring agents to use deadly force, doubled its weapons budget, and handed it $80 billion to expand.
Trump inherited that agency and started dismantling it on day one.
The bill that would finish the job – the one that would auction off the AR-15s and sell the ammo back to the public – is still sitting in a drawer on Capitol Hill waiting for Republicans to call the vote.
Sources:
- Jeremy Portnoy, "IRS stocks up on military-style rifle plates and ammo," RealClearWire via WorldNetDaily, April 25, 2026.
- "Rep. Barry Moore Introduces Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act," Office of Rep. Barry Moore, April 15, 2025.
- Adam Kredo, "Non-Law Enforcement Agencies Like IRS and EPA Spend Billions on Guns and Ammo, Watchdog Says," Washington Free Beacon, May 2, 2023.
- Diana Glebova, "IRS Deletes Job Posting Seeking Applicants Willing to 'Use Deadly Force'," National Review, August 10, 2022.
- "IRS Has 4,600 Guns and Five Million Rounds of Ammo," Americans for Tax Reform, March 2023.
- "IRS has spent $10 million on weaponry and gear since start of coronavirus pandemic," Fox Business, May 2023.
