Gun Control I Can Support

Terrorist or a LEO?  The difference is shrinking

Today George Reisman writing for the Ludwig von Mises Institute touched on a topic that has recently come to my attention, the proliferation of federal agencies who have taken to arming and equipping their own private militias.

These are regulatory bureaucracies not law enforcement agencies and yet have taken on some contrived law enforcement authority as an excuse to purchase and pass out guns to selected employees.

The Dept. of Education, Housing and Urban Development and Social Security Administration appear to be the latest paper pushers to assign themselves the authority to carry guns.

God only knows who else has or has plans to form their own armed goon squads. Bureau of Weighs and Measure? Census Bureau? Library of Congress? Dept. Of Double Entendre’s?

Ya know, any butcher willing to use an uncalibrated scale is capable of taking hostages if cornered. Just sayin’.

While my own research on this trend has failed to turn up a current list of federal agencies authorized to carry weapons, I have learned that many agencies see this as a matter of prestige. A way to stake out more ‘turf’ for themselves in a growing ocean of federal agencies, many of which have overlapping duties. It’s also a way they can pressure Congress for an ever increasing share of the taxpayer’s pie.

Recently we learned that the National Weather Service, an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) oversees Maritime Fisheries. Under that guise they feel the need to create an armed militia, because those dadgummed fish poachers are some mean hombres.

I’ll bet you can’t find a single Capt. of fishing trawler whose boat was ever boarded by the Weather Service and his crew held at gunpoint while the size of their catch was inspected.

Never mind the fact that the US Coast Guard already patrols off shore fisheries and inspects the commercial fishing fleet for compliance. Never mind the fact that both federal and State Fish and Wildlife Services also have authority to regulate the size of the catch and the fishing seasons. They make the rules and the Coast Guard enforces it.

The Social Security Administration says they need an armed force to protect their offices and employees. Really? You have a lot of old geezers waving canes at the desk jockeys? When pressed they couldn’t give one instance when one of their offices were threatened. Instead they mentioned a case where a street fight broke out “near” one of their offices. And I suppose the local cops couldn’t handle it?

I can’t wait for the day when the “blue belly” rent-a-cops of the TSA are issued submachineguns and body armor. The better to intimidate granny into dropping her drawers. And you know that day is coming.

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