It seems I have to keep writing columns about how over-militarized our country is, and yet no one really seems to pay attention.
Well now it seems the government has gone so far as to give bookkeepers submachine guns.
After Sept. 11, the United States went insane trying to cover every security loophole to protect the public from ?potential terrorist threats. Part of this panic included passing the 2002 Homeland Security Act.
In addition to creating a new bloated, bureaucratic federal department, the Homeland Security Act also gave nearly every existing federal department military ?capabilities.
Essentially, the United States moved toward arming nearly all federal employees. It’s becoming a pestilence so pervasive even the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General has requested 27 shotguns for its auditors.
That’s right. The people in charge of making sure elementary schools spend money correctly could be armed with shotguns.
Besides the general insanity that must accompany this logic semiautomatic submachine guns, the process is also quite secretive.
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said Congress doesn’t know how many or what types of weapons these agencies are stockpiling.
Stewart went on to say, “Americans don’t see why dozens of federal agencies need their own highly armed police forces with the authority to raid homes and businesses,” according to CNN.
Prior to the passage of 2002 Homeland Security Act, agencies could request the use of weapons on an ad hoc basis, meaning the requests had to be renewed. After the law passed, however, these agencies began operating under a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in regard to weapons ?procurement.
The Social Security Administration has 290 investigators who carry weapons but, in the past 20 years, they’ve only ever fired their weapons twice.
Meanwhile, in 2011, the Food and Drug Administration performed armed raids of Amish farms. The charges? The farms may have been violating regulations related to the production and sale of raw milk.
There have also been reports by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, according to CNN, that the Food and Drug Administration has raided unarmed food producers at gunpoint because they were suspected of violating permits.
When your government begins stockpiling weapons to hold up people accused of picking fruit out of season, you have a problem with fear in your country.
Now we’re experiencing the consequences of letting a federal bureaucracy become so consumed with fear that it arms elementary school ?inspectors.
We can’t win the war on ?terror if we give up freedoms
We have to stand strong and resolute in our fight against terror by protecting our people, upholding human rights abroad and retaining our rights here at home.
ajguenth@indiana.edu
