THE CONSPIRACY TO KEEP YOU PARANOID AND STUPID

Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina) wants you to be paranoid, angry, and ignorant:

Rep. Jeff Duncan wants to know why IRS law enforcement agents are training with AR-15 rifles.

As chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.

"When I left there, it's been bugging me for weeks now, why IRS agents are training with a semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which has stand-off capability," Duncan told POLITICO. "Are Americans that much of a target that you need that kind of capability?" ...

As Congressman Duncan knows perfectly well -- or ought to -- fighting potentially violent criminals has been part of the job of some IRS agents for, oh, about ninety years:

According to the IRS website, "IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) is comprised of approximately 4,100 employees worldwide, approximately 2,700 of whom are special agents whose investigative jurisdiction includes tax, money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act laws."

CI special agents are required to "carry and use a firearm." According to the basic requirements to qualify for a position as a CI special agent, "applicants must carry and use a firearm."

... In September 2003, the IRS manual was updated to establish an "Integrated Financial System" to "track IRS property" and "investigative equipment," including "firearms, body armor...use of force padded training suits, and firearms training systems" for the CI division.

That's "2003" as in "when George W. Bush was president."

IRS CI division has been investigating dangerous organizations such as drug traffickers since the 1920s. Established in 1919 as the "Intelligence Unit" and changing its name in 1978, CI's agents have historically investigated potentially dangerous individuals and organizations, beginning with its first investigation of an "opium trafficker in Hawaii in the early 1920s." ...

During Bush Administration, CI special agents participated in Anti-Terrorism Task Forces, World Trade Center searches, investigations of Saddam Hussein's regime, and other such "special assignments in the Middle East." ...

So, yeah, these folks do dangerous work. So you get the likes of this, from 2007:

Three alleged members of a major cocaine-trafficking organization operating in the Lubbock area were arrested Thursday morning by federal, state and local law enforcement officials....

Law enforcement agencies involved in the arrests include: the Drug Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement....

Here's the CI division in raids on members of a child prostitution ring in 2005, and on illegal steroid manufacturers in 2007 -- yes, before the inauguration of the tyrant Obama.

Congressman Duncan? Please just shut the hell up.