If Anyone Needs to Explain Why They Need Guns, It's the EPA

[DougC]

Read more at Bearing Arms blog;

Topline: The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t traditionally associated with ranged weaponry, but the federal government has spent almost $620,000 since 2018 to buy guns, ammunition, and more for EPA employees.

Key facts: Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found that between 2018 and 2022, the EPA spent close to $400,000 of federal funds just on ammunition. That came after the EPA purchased 500,000 rounds of ammo and 600 guns from 2010-2017.

Over $100,000 went to buying armor for EPA employees. Funds were also used for “optical sighting and ranging equipment,” for “night vision equipment” and “security vehicles.”

Background: The EPA has a Criminal Enforcement Program, which had a budget of more than $70 million in 2023. Its goals include “protecting communities with environmental justice concerns” and curbing illegal sales of pesticides.

p.s. I searched this forum in case the topic had been addressed already but only found a USPS discussion of armed postal agents from 2014. From the comments at the time a number of readers had a lot to write on armed federal agents. Wikipedia had the following citation listing armed federal agencies. The images I inserted were a generic search for armed EPA agents so not verified, just click bait

 

[Tnhawk]

Too many of the alphabet agencies of the federal government have been armed in recent years without any good reason.

 

[crystalphoto]

Yeah, wonder why...

 

[Wudidiz]

One reason is that they enjoy spending our money on shit they can't justify.

 

[Lead Belly]

Arm the Postal Workers

This 1921 photo of a mail car from the USPS site I found interesting. After numerous mail thefts on trains after World War 1, in 1921 the Post Office started having the clerks wear pistols while they worked. They were given orders to shoot to kill any would-be thief in order to protect the mail. Up until 1939 there were also times U.S. Marines rode the trains to protect the mail. link

 

[Texasjack]

I worked over 40 years dealing with these clowns. Why do they need guns, armor, etc.? They don't, except maybe a couple of building security guards. 99.9999% of what they do involves paperwork. That includes enforcement.

I was involved in a case once where they actually raided a chemical plant with armed enforcement officers. The plan was to show up and grab all the files in order to prevent any from being moved or destroyed. Normally, they simply send a letter to the company's legal department and they will send out a memo to everyone that the government is investigating a certain location or subject and not to edit, destroy, hide or otherwise mess with any documents pertaining to that subject. I've seen documents saved for a decade without the government actually doing anything. For some crazy reason, EPA decided they needed to raid this particular plant. Now comes the fun part: The security guards at the gate told the agents they could not enter the plant with guns, as they had been instructed to never allow guns in the plant. (A chemical plant like this is full of things that burn or explode if they get out of the pipes. You never want a gun fired in there.) This initiated a long argument between the agency folks, the guards, and the company legal department. (Hint: If lawyers are involved, things are going to take forever.) After a few hours of angry discussion, the EPA folks agreed to keep their guns holstered and they were allowed to come in and remove all the file cabinets.

I don't remember what precipitated the action, but I think a disgruntled employee had reported that there was some sort of pollution going on and being covered up by the company. The plant had a lot of issues, but this was not one of them. The whole thing got dropped in a few months.

I got involved when the company decided to have someone audit their air permits. We found that they had about 35 emission points that needed state permits (not Texas). They had maybe 200 that were properly permitted. Their legal staff was absolutely sure the state would shut them down and fine them millions of dollars. By sheer coincidence, a local state inspector called and scheduled a routine visit to check on things at the plant. We met with him in a conference room and the company had their legal staff in the next room ready to file injunctions to prevent closure. I had repeatedly told them I had this under control, but they didn't believe me. I told the inspector about the audit and the missing permits. His response was, "Wow, that's a bunch of permit applications to process. Do you think you could maybe submit 10 a month?" "Sure. No problem." "Cool", he responded, "but by the way, we somehow lost the copies of all of your other permits. Do you think you could send us copies?" "Sure. No problem." The inspector left and the lawyers were in amazement.

 

[Southpaw]

Tracking down VW executives, various clean air act violators, a guy dumping oil, a guy smuggling freon and another that was selling emission system simulators is serious business guys!!!

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/epa-fugitives

 

[Mowingmaniac 24/7]

WTH are ' environmental justice concerns” ?

 

[Byrd666]

WTH are ' environmental justice concerns” ?

More Taxes

 

[Texasjack]

WTH are ' environmental justice concerns” ?

There is a theory amongst the "woke" that companies built refineries and chemical plants and power plants near poor people because they didn't care if those folks got hit with pollution. If those companies were fair, they would have built a refinery in the middle of the country club. This crap made it into environmental regulations, and that created a whole new bureaucracy within the EPA to deal with it. Many companies have gone out and bought all the houses in the neighborhood just to try to avoid getting hit with issues from this.

And, yes, you have to overlook all sorts of logic in order to reach this conclusion. But if you're a true Social Justice Warrior, you know that you can use this nonsense to force corporations to give money to things like BLM as compensation for their evil deeds. And, yes, no actual poor people will benefit by any of this, but that's how extortion works.

 

[Texasjack]

Tracking down VW executives, various clean air act violators, a guy dumping oil, a guy smuggling freon and another that was selling emission system simulators is serious business guys!!!

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/epa-fugitives

Interestingly enough, I remember a lawyer going over the criminal penalties for environmental violations. The average murderer in the USA serves 3 1/2 years while the average environmental violator serves 5 1/2 years. It's easier to convict someone of an environmental violation than it is to convict them of murder. The only thing that will get you behind bars faster is tax evasion.

 

[OldPhart]

I may be thinking simply regarding this, but the more armed federal employees there are, the more likely they will use them during a SHTF situation.

 

[Lead Belly]

I may be thinking simply regarding this, but the more armed federal employees there are...

As of 2020, more than 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers have been serving in the United States. About 137,000 of those officers work for federal law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement operates primarily through governmental police agencies. There are 17,985 police agencies in the United States which include local police departments, campus police, railroad police, park service police, game wardens, forest service, county sheriff's offices, state troopers, and federal law enforcement agencies. link

• 73 federal agencies
• 50 primary state law enforcement agencies
• 638 other state agencies
• 1,733 special jurisdiction agencies
• 3,063 sheriff's offices
• 12,501 municipal, county, tribal, and regional police departments