While the U.S. Department of Education's notice of intent to buy 27 brand-new Model 870 police-grade 12-gauge shotguns may conjure up visions of jack-booted federal thugs marching down the halls of your local grade school, the Department's need for the guns is valid.
The shotguns, intended to supplement the Department of Education's "existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol," will be used by the Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG).
As the law enforcement arm of the Department of Education, the OIG investigates cases of fraud, theft and other illegal uses of federal education funds. Since their job requires potentially dangerous duties including serving warrants and making felony arrests, Education Department OIG agents are require to carry firearms.
An annual list of cases investigated by Education Department OIG agents over the last 10 years reveals many cases of fraud involving the theft of from $100,000 to $600,000 in federal funds.
Comments
School investigators and IRS agents with guns? Sounds like we the people are the enemy? Just more reasons to home school and not to use the public fool system!!
A “law enforcement arm of the Department of Education”?!? My mind is going – I can feel it.
Click the link for annual list of cases investigated. One states:”The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, the United States Department of Education, Office of Inspector General and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General.”
Wow! Everybody but the Crossing Guards! Doesn’t say if they were outgunned. I’m dying to know if OSHA & EPA have guns. Gotta get into the Healthcare bill & see what provisons it contains for a “law enforcement arm”.
akvusn: Any federal agent who operates in a law enforcement capacity may be armed. OSHA and EPA agents may have to shut down entire construction sites or factories. You bet they have access to firearms.
Yeah, but the question is, why do they need to act in a law enforcement capacity. This should be handled by better trained law enforcement officers. Every branch of govt has to have their own tactical response team with all the new military toys. It’s bad policy and a waste of resources.
>akvusn: Any federal agent who operates in a law >enforcement capacity may be armed. OSHA and EPA >agents may have to shut down entire construction sites or >factories. You bet they have access to firearms.
Well folks, the way all the studemts,well not all, but a considerable sum carry around guns & other assorted items to hurt others with I think all the teachers & any other Education Personel should be armed & have ” A license to kill”
So now every branch of Government has to have guns? Every Government worker is the Police now?
This explanation doesn’t hold water.. I guess I’ll have to armor up as well now, since clearly a Police State is coming to America..
Amen, we all need to carry firearms because our federal government is out of control. I would rather be tried by 12 than carried by six.
Oh one other thing.. The guns they are being given on our dime are hard for the Average citizen to buy.. You have to pay a $200 tax stamp to buy a shotgun that short, & then the Government can track your purchase of that gun (unconstitutional). The Government however is exempt from those same taxes & the background checks..
They are building an unconstitutional standing army under your noses people..
Dan — Federal employees required to carry or handle firearms as part of their jobs undergo the same FBI background check applied to regular police officers. It is a much deeper check than the state and NCIC background checks done on civilian firearm buyers.
Robert
Dan — There are now over 2 million federal government employees. The number who carry firearms is a miniscule percentage of them. It is just not reasonable to expect local police agencies to be aware of and enforce federal, as well as state and local laws.
Gary is a troll.
Never mind the picture of riot shotguns in any school or school administrative office I’ve ever seen, and the fact that they would hardly be the best thing to carry into a shcool shooting situation much less an audit or arrest of a crooked school official, in 19 years of education and 35 years of practicing law including school and criminal law, and known about some investigations of misuse of federal education money and other vjiolations of federal education law, I have never even read, either in an official report of a case or in the media, many of which I have read including some about schools with which I had close contact, of a DOE agent, rather than FBI, Treasury, etc., taking any action wheer carrying a shotgun would make any sense whatsoever. Since a lot of the public schools I know about have full-time, armed, uniformed police assigned, plus armed undercover officers, and they say publicly that the gangs’ influence is “pervasive,” and a succession of school officials in Dallas hired from or recommended by tehe DOE
You the citizen have become the opposition to your government, whereas it used to be your representation was your input into a well written Constitutional form of a Republic, it has now degenerated into largess, we are now held at bay by elitism and republican or deemer they both will grow the government and wilfully ignore the Constitution.
Your watchdog the MSM has also abandoned you, they side with big government and write what the government wants to hear in order to guide you. The judiciary is mostly activist and claim that for the good of all they will make up law to avoid true law, such as eneforcement of immigration. The exec office is now a standing world wide joke a embarrassment to the touting of freedom as our founding fathers intended, words mean things but the words of this leadership ring hollow and mislead as does the pocket lawyer who defends a known criminal.
Your job is to recall the Constitution, reduce the size of this big spending government and repeal all of the badly concieved law and put restraints on the politicians who tendency is to corrupt by removing their power, control of the purse strings.