SIG Rifles for 2016

This year at the SIG Sauer booth there was a lot to take in. Some of their new products for 2016 really stood out, including the updated SIG716 G2, M400 Scorpion AR pistols, redesigned P210 target pistols and after a long tease, optics-ready P320 models.

SIG Rifles for 2016

The SIG716 G2 is surprisingly lightweight.

Thanks to a skeletal KeyMod handguard.

The SIG716 G2 is an updated version of the AR-10-style short-stroke piston-driven SIG716. It has a heavy-contour 16-inch barrel, chambered for 7.62 NATO/.308 Winchester, with a modular, monolithic handguard. The handguard has a flattop rail for optics and sights and KeyMod slots along the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions for grips, lights, pointers and other accessories.
Unlike the previous-generation model with a four-position gas block, the G2 now has a simple two-position gas system for shooting suppressed or unsuppressed, and the rifles all have suppressor-ready muzzle brakes for use with SIG’s new line of suppressors.

A short handguard will be offered as well.

They are suppressor-ready.

A lot of weight-savings tweaks went into the new G2 model. It weighs in at 9 pounds, two pounds lighter than the old SIG716. SIG will start shipping the new rifles in February, with MSRPs around $2600.
SIG is launching a new series of direct-impingement M400-pattern AR pistols that draws on the look and feel of their Scorpion handguns. They are launching with two models, a 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington pistol with an 11.5-inch barrel and a 300 AAC Blackout pistol with a 9-inch barrel. Like the Scorpion handguns, the AR pistols are only offered in flat dark earth. MSRPs are right at $1400.

SIG Pistols for 2016

Optics-equipped SIG pistols will hit shelves this 2016.

And come with SIG optics installed.

The optics-ready P320 RX series — so-called for SIG’s Romeo compact reflex sights — is finally expected to ship this year. P320 RX pistols will come with a Romeo1 sight mounted to the slide along with a set of raised suppressor sights that cowitness with the optic.
The Romeo1 features SIG’s MOTAC (Motion Activated Illumination) system which increases battery life by turning off the red dot when not in use, and it instantly turns it on when it senses vibration or movement. Machined from a single billet of magnesium, the Romeo1 is designed to stand up to serious abuse.
SIG is launching with two models, their based on their Full-Size and their Compact P320 pistols, and they will be available with a two-tone or plain black finish. Shipping starts mid-February with a $799 MSRP — including the Romeo1.

The updated P210 has a surprisingly low MSRP.

This year SIG is also reintroducing the venerable P210. The announcement is causing a bit of a stir as the American-made guns are priced significantly lower than the original German pistols. SIG is kicking things off with two models, the P210 Classic and P210 Target.
Like the originals, the new P210 pistols are full-size single-action, single-stack handguns chambered for 9mm Luger. They have slender frames and slides with the slide running on rails inside the frame — and are considered by many to be the best target pistols ever produced by SIG.
The new SIG P210 shares a lot of features with the more recent P210 Legend series including the American-style push-button magazine release, checkered target grips, wide slide serrations, stainless steel construction and Super Target-style manual thumb safety. Both have 5-inch barrels; the main differences are that The Classic will come with fixed sights and the Target will have adjustable sights and extra slide serrations on the front of the slide.
MSRP will be around $1500 for the P210 Target and $1300 for the P210 Classic with availability expected May of this year. SIG plans to follow up with a 6-inch longslide version later in June as well as a 4-inch Carry version after that.
This is just some of what SIG has in the works for this year. We’ll follow up with news and reviews of SIG’s latest hardware in detail throughout 2016.
Read more at SIG Sauer: http://www.sigsauer.com/

FN has introduced their military collector series

FN is probably most identified with the guns that it makes for the United States military. In an effort to allow citizens to enjoy the same firearm that the military uses minus the full auto funds switch FN has introduced their military collector series. This series is made up of the three rifles they currently supply to the government.
I had a chance to shoot these guns at range day. The M4 performed just as you would have expected what was a pleasant surprise to me is how long it had been since I shot a full-sized rifle. The 20 inch M-16 was remarkably fun to shoot. The M249 was available in both the semiauto and full auto configurations for range day. If shooting these guns don’t put a smile on your face there’s something wrong.

FN 15 military collector M4 is a semiautomatic version of the M4 carbine produced for the military. It is chambered in 5.56X 45 mm, with standard military front sight and flip up rear sight. It comes to you equipped with a permanently pinned flash suppressor to get the barrel to a legal 16 inches. The accessory rail forearm includes Knights Armament rail covers and front pistol grip. As you would expect it also comes with a mil spec six position stock with two sling mounts and a pistol grip. The gun is authentic to the point of even having the UID label with QR code printed below the ejection port on the magazine well.

Next in this series is the FN 15 military collector M16 this rifle is the civilian version of the baseline military M-16. This gun is also equipped nicely with the addition of a 20 inch, alloy steel, button broached, chrome lined barrel with A2 style compensator. They have also included the fixed A2 style rifle buttstock for authenticity. You get all of the G.I. specific accessories that came with the M4, rail covers, sights and vertical foregrip.
The retail is $1749 for either rifle they are available now.

The FN M249S is the civilian version of the iconic M249 SAW that the military has been using since 1988. With the exception of firing only semiautomatic from a closed bolt it is virtually an identical rifle. It comes with a 20.5 inch cold hammer Forged, stainless steel machine gun barrel that allows for quick changes in the field. It will accept M27 linked ammunition belt or standard AR 15 magazines. With the tripod attached this beast weighs in at 17 pounds and overall length of 40.7 inches.
This gun can be yours for a mere $7999. FN is anxiously awaiting your order.

violate the United States Constitution

In an online statement, Stewart Rhodes, founder and president of Oathkeepers, a “patriot” group of current and former military and law enforcement officers pledging not to obey orders which they believe violate the United States Constitution, wrote:

We cannot force ourselves or our protection on people who do not want it. Dwight and Steven Hammond have made it clear, through their attorney, that they just want to turn themselves in and serve out their sentence. And that clear statement of their intent should be the end of the discussion on this. No patriot group or individual has the right or the authority to force an armed stand off on this family, or around them, against their wishes. You cannot help someone who does not want your help, and who are not willing and ready to take a hard stand themselves.”

Stewart Rhodes

Rhodes went on to explain:

We went to Bundy Ranch after the Bundy family directly asked for help in their strong stand, and we went there specifically to prevent them from being “Waco’d” after we saw clear preparation and intent by the Feds to use military trained snipers and Special Forces veteran mercenaries against cowboys and their families.

Likewise, the miners in the Sugar Pine Mine in Oregon, and the miners in Lincoln, Montana asked for our help and we went there after seeing a pattern of behavior by the BLM of intentionally burning occupied cabins, drawing guns on miners, etc. that caused us to be concerned for the miners’ physical safety, along with evidence that BLM agents intended to use force to remove the miners from their claims without due process.

And in Ferguson, Missouri, we asked shop owners and residents if they wanted our protection, and only after they said “yes” did we deploy, rifles in hand, to guard them against deadly arsonists and violent looters. Without their consent, we would have had no right to go onto their rooftops.

And just this year, in Idaho, our Idaho Oath Keepers joined with Idaho Three Percenters and other patriots to stand on the front lawn of a veteran who the VA had decreed “unfit to handle his own affairs” and therefore prohibited from owning firearms. …

All indicators were that the Bundy’s were at risk of being killed in a Ruby Ridge or Waco type incident. And that is why we went (along with many other groups and individuals) after the Bundy family directly asked for help. And because the whole Bundy family, and many of their cowboy friends and neighbors were willing to take a hard stand, with the support of veterans and patriots, they prevailed, the Feds blinked, and backed off.

That was a clear win for Team Liberty, while maintaining the moral high ground in the eyes of the great majority of patriotic Americans – which is exactly why the Feds backed off. They knew they had overstepped, that the “optics” were bad, and they had severely underestimated the resolve and resistance, and could not win without using overwhelming military force, and they knew that if they tried to use that military force – as many leftists were screaming for them to do – the military would split at least in half, and many or most of the current serving trigger pullers in the Marine Corps and Army infantry would have sided with the resistance – joining all of us pissed off veterans – in the resulting civil war.

In the Hammond case, there is no clear and present danger of the family being mass murdered, there is no stand off, and the family has no intent of starting one…We must respect that choice. …

Those who intend to try to force this into some form of modern “Lexington Green” or “Concord Bridge” against the wishes of the Hammonds and their neighbors need to take a hard look at the Founders’ example and their wisdom. The Founders, even after the Boston Massacre, did not immediately take up arms and fight. They gave the Crown and Parliament plenty of rope to hang themselves and show their true face to the colonists, and drive more Americans over to the Patriot cause.

The patriots did not fire on the King’s troops until General Gage ordered his men to march on Lexington and Concord to seize Hancock and Adams, and to confiscate guns, cannon, powder, and food supplies. In other words, the patriot leadership had the discipline and wisdom to maneuver Gage into attempting wholesale gun confiscation. And that was the spark that fully justified armed resistance in they eyes of the greatest number of Americans at the time.

By doing so, they retained the moral high ground, while also engaging the King’s troops out in patriot dominated territory, where they were strong, well organized, and vastly outnumbered the Red Coats, and thus they kicked their ass all the way back to Boston. They poked Gage into vastly overstepping (and “stepping on his dick” as we would say today) and by doing so, they started the Revolution off with a win on all fronts – a military victory, a moral victory, and a morale victory. THAT is how you kick off a fight. … And that is how you start off a Revolution.

All of you who are impatient and itching for a fight, put your thinking caps on, and use your heads. Keep your cool, and don’t worry, the fight will come to you soon enough. Obama, and the other anti-gun idiot politicians, such as the Governor of CT, will not be able to resist the temptation to attempt to violate our right to bear arms by executive decree, such as barring anyone put on no-fly list and other “government watch lists” from owning guns – which would include me…

Clearly, their intent is to eventually put all of you “dangerous” veterans, patriots, and constitutionalists on such watch lists, designate you as someone who is barred from owning guns, and then use that to disarm you, one at a time. And they actually think we will just roll over and let them do that. …

Let Obama and the other hoplophobes [an invented term to describe those who fear guns] step on their dicks, with both feet, with cleats on. And organize local resistance, to help gun owners, like the old vet in Idaho, who are willing to take a hard stand, and put your muscle behind that hard stand, on the critical issue of guns, IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY (the three most important questions you have to answer are “who’s on your buddy team, who’s on your fire-team, who’s on your squad”).

Islamist running 140 tax-funded charter schools in U.S.

Muhammad Fethullah Gulen heads a global empire of schools and Islamic cultural centers and is one of Turkey’s most influential spiritual leaders. He lives in exile in the United States and has 140 charters schools in 26 states.

Muhammad Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish Islamist, writer and preacher with a secret plan for bringing Shariah law to America.

Arguably Turkey’s most influential spiritual leader of the past 50 years, Gülen left that country in the late 1990s and now directs his cult-like Islamic movement from a guarded compound in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Part of his empire consists of a thriving network of more than 140 charter schools in 26 states that sell themselves to parents as a secular and more academically rigorous alternative to public schools.
As the second largest chain of charter schools in the United States, Gülen schools rake in tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars every year.
But the schools, which have nondescript names like Horizon Science Academies in Illinois, Harmony School of Excellence in Washington, D.C., and Magnolia Science Academies in California, have long been the subject of investigations into alleged corruption scandals involving conflicts of interest, influence peddling and visa abuse.
USA Today reported recently that the Gülen faith movement secretly funded 200 overseas trips for congressional lawmakers and staff since 2008.

“Turkish leaders have asked the United States to extradite Gülen from the remote compound in rural Pennsylvania where he has lived for 20 years.
The movement has founded hundreds of charter schools across the United States and around the world, has its own media organizations, and was deeply entrenched with the Turkish regime until a falling out two years ago. That led President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to declare Gülen was running ‘a parallel state’ inside the country with the intent of undermining the government.”

Critics argue that the schools also covertly engage in Islamic missionary outreach, usually after-hours or during school extra-curricular activities.
Anti-Shariah activist Pam Geller says Gülen has been dubbed “the Turkish Khomeini” for a reason.
“It has been widely reported for years that he wants ultimately to restore the Islamic caliphate in Turkey. That alone should make his charter schools in the U.S. a subject of law enforcement scrutiny, but it largely hasn’t,” Geller told WND. “There have been allegations that funds from these schools have gone to a Turkish Islamization movement, Hizmet. The U.S. government shouldn’t be funding Gülen’s schools; it should be investigating them and shutting them down.”
Most of the parents of students who attend Gülen charter schools have no idea about Gülen’s background as a Turkish Islamist and believer in civilizational jihad — which is a form of nonviolent jihad focused on infiltrating and overcoming Western nations over time through immigration and exploitation of the civil liberties available in those nations.
But a new book on Gülen and his U.S. schools hopes to blow the lid on his cloak of secrecy.
Clare Lopez, co-author with Christopher Holton of “Gülen and the Gulenist Movement: Turkey’s Islamic Supremacist Cult and its Contributions to Civilizational Jihad,” says the movement is extremely secretive but there’s no small amount of information for those willing to dig. She and Holton decided to peel back the layers.
“There have been many articles and of course the movement itself puts out a great deal of material and Fethullah Gülen himself is a prolific author of articles and books,” Lopez told WND.
Lopez, who is vice president of research and analysis for the Center for Security Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank operated by former Defense Department analyst Frank Gaffney, said Gulen is “fundamentally jihadist in outlook,” while promoting orthodox Islamic tenets within a worldwide movement.
Gulen is also heavily involved in the global interfaith movement, which seeks to build bridges between the major faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
“While not very well known by many Americans he is nevertheless quite influential and works through the schools, cultural organizations and the media to promote not only the orthodox teachings of Islam, but also a positive outlook towards Turkey,” Lopez said. “We’re concerned about its influence on our children, civic leaders and elected officials.”
Listen to Clare Lopez talk about the subject of her new book, the shadowy Gülen movement.

Traditionally the centers of Islam have been based in Saudi Arabia for Sunnis and Iran for Shiites.
But Turkey has always been the wild card. Students of history will recall that it served as the head of the Ottoman Empire for more than 500 years, but crashed and burned in the aftermath of World War I and was steered into a more Western mindset by Ataturk.
Under Erdogan's AKP party, however, that has all changed, as documented in the film "End Times Eyewitness" by Christian author and filmmaker Joel Richardson.
Erdogan has overturned the secularized Western influence that had banned the hijab and the fez in public places and eliminated the many Shariah-compliant restrictions placed on society.
Asylum in American
Gülen's cultural empire, including his schools and media companies, had a lot to do with the return of Islamist values in Turkey. But Gülen lost out on the political power struggle and in 1998 fled to the U.S., where he was offered asylum.
In the U.S., Gülen schools are not outwardly Islamic. Any influence in that regard is subtle, Lopez said.

Map of Gulen schools and cultural institutions in the United States.

But he has become expert at buying influence from politicians in Washington and in state Capitols.
"There have been many allegations of abuse of the visa system, kickbacks in salaries, and attempted influencing of school administrators, parents and teachers, journalists, priests and rabbis, everyone," Lopez said.
Sign the petition! Urge Congress to 'halt Muslim immigration now!'
In 2013 Gülen and Erdogan had a final falling out.
"These are two powerful men each intent on seizing power for themselves, not that they disagree in any way over the direction to take Turkey, which is away from the West and toward the neo-Ottoman Islamic caliphate," Lopez says.
The U.S. gave Gülen legal permanent resident status in 2008, and he is now eligible for citizenship.
Soaking the U.S. taxpayer
The amount of public taxpayer money Gulen's charter schools receive every year runs into the tens of millions. A charter school is essentially operated like a private school only it receives taxpayer funding and does not answer to any widely elected school board.
"There's all kinds of charter schools in the U.S. that receive taxpayer funding and that is how the Gulen movement has developed its network of schools in the U.S., making them attractive by making them STEM schools, which parents love," Lopez said.
And when Congress passed the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind late last year, it included increased funding for taxpayer-funded charter schools run by unelected boards.
"Gulen Charter Schools exemplify the unconstitutionality of tax-funded school choice," writes Charlotte Iserbyt, a former education adviser to President Ronald Reagan, in her blog, "The ABCs of Dumb Down."
"There is no citizen accountability or oversight," Iserbyt says. "No wonder there is corruption. Those who think that charters are the solution for Common Core, forget it."
And for all of the taxpayer money flooding into the Gülen schools, most of the teaching positions go to foreigners who come to the U.S. on H-1B guest-worker visas from Turkey. This is the visa program that GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio wants to expand through his I-Squared bill, tripling the cap on such visas from about 66,000 per year to 195,000 per year.
"To the best of my knowledge in all the research I've done, I don't see that the Gülen schools are being accused of teaching Islamic ideology in the schools, that's not the issue, rather it's the abuse of H-1B visa system to bring in Turkish teachers instead of hiring Americans," Lopez said. "There is alleged abuse of the teachers who are required to kick back a percentage of their salaries, and they do teach a cultural emphasis on Turkey and Islam."
Charges of influence peddling
The schools also are known for offering lavish, all-expenses paid trips to Turkey for friendly politicians at the state, local and federal level.
The USA Today investigation accuses the Gülen movement of falsifying its funding of trips for U.S. congressional members.
Lopez said teachers and parents have complained that the schools' main purpose is to promote a love not only for Turkish culture but Islam.
"You'll see in the book former teachers or people who've broken away from the movement who say there is an attempt to inculcate a positive view of Turkey and Islamic culture," she said.
An Islamist with a hidden agenda

Joel Richardson is a Bible teacher, author and documentary filmmaker.

Richardson, the Christian author and filmmaker, said Gülen is without a doubt an Islamist with an hidden agenda. His strategy mirrors that of the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates non-violent civilizational jihad as the means to infiltrate and influence Western societies.
"In the past, he has made very overt comments about the need to infiltrate the arteries of the system and so forth," Richardson told WND. "On the other hand, he is definitely non-violent and has furthered the idea, popular within some of the Turkish-Islamist movement of non-violent Islamism."
Erdogan struck harshly against the Gülen movement in Turkey, rooting numerous Gülen supporters out of the government and throwing them in prison. Erdogan has called for the U.S. to extradite Gülen for allegedly subverting the Turkish government.
"In terms of the danger that Gülen represents to the United States, I would say that five years ago, Gülen and his charter schools were a bigger concern," Richardson said. "They still need to be defunded by the U.S. government. Today, however, compared to the much larger dangers we are facing, including the very real Islamists that Obama has allowed into the U.S. government, or the very real, very violent Islamists that have infiltrated the country, Gülen, with his ideological jihad, is a relatively small fish, in an ever-expanding pond of violent Islamists."
Lopez said the Gülen movement helped drag Turkey back to its Islamic roots and so his influence should not be under-estimated in the U.S., and certainly should not be given taxpayer funding.
"Look what's happened to Turkey, the Islamists were voted in, and Erdogan is on a neo-Ottoman path to take Turkey back to its roots as a jihadist state, so I think there is ever good reason to be concerned about his activities (in the U.S.)," Lopez said.

AR-15s are simply modern hunting rifles

With all the political buzz about gun control in the last couple of weeks, it’s important to separate fact from fiction. AR-15s are often referred to as assault weapons, when in actuality, they are just a modern version of a semi-automatic sporting rifle.

The name AR-15 stands for Armalite Model 15. The abbreviation “AR” has nothing to do with the term “assault rifle.” True assault rifles, like the M16 and M4 carbine assault rifles, which are currently in use by the United States military, are fully automatic-capable firearms. Ownership of such fully automatic firearms has been severely restricted for civilians since 1934. Modern sporting rifles — AR-based — are semi-automatic firearms, meaning they shoot one shot per trigger pull. The action of modern sporting rifles is similar to other semi-automatic firearms, including semi-automatic shotguns commonly used for duck hunting or semi-automatic .22 rifles often used for introducing kids to guns. Modern sporting rifles look different than your grandpa’s gun but likely function the same way.

The AR platform is becoming more and more common among hunters across the country because of their durability, accuracy and ability to be customized. While the issue of limited caliber choice does currently remain, the days of widespread calibers across the AR platform are near.

A lot of the misconception of the AR-15 lies in the fact that these sporting rifles look like the rifles we see soldiers and law enforcement carrying. The trend of transitioning military style rifles into the modern shooting world has been going on for centuries. As military technology has advanced weaponry, civilian sporting firearms have become more dependable, more ergonomically correct and therefore better for hunters interested in equipment that helps them make ethical shots.

“Because of my military background, I am most comfortable using an AR as a hunting rifle. The body style is what I’m used. I do a lot of hog hunting at night, so I appreciate the ability to add a light to the picatinny rail. My AR is just a modern semi-automatic sporting rifle that looks and feels like the rifle I carried as a Marine,” retired Marine Kevin Reese said.

The ease of customizing ARs is the greatest appeal of the platform. Not only can you easily add accessories, but you can also switch upper receivers to change the caliber of the rifle. Actually, you can change and customize just about every part of an AR, including the handguard, trigger, grip, sights, magazine, stock and more. Once you have customized the necessary parts, you start adding accessories like lights, optics and slings.

“The biggest advantage of the AR platform is the modularity of the gun. ARs can be customized for personal preferences, such as color, barrel length, stock/forearm configurations and caliber. You can easily switch uppers” receivers, “having one for varmint hunting, one for big-game hunting and another for target shooting while maintaining the exact same fit and feel of your rifle,” said Matt Kinamore, product manager at Battenfeld Technologies.

ARs can be overwhelming to newcomers. There are a lot of parts and some fancy terms. Once you have a basic comprehension, though, it’s easy to start understanding what goes where and how you can customize that part.

Another great appeal of ARs is the ease of cleaning and maintenance. These rifles break down quickly and are easy to put back together. You can remove most of the major parts without tools, and for the parts that do require tools, a number of manufacturers are producing specialty items that make every part of an AR cleaning job a breeze.

Misinformation is being used in an attempt to infringe upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Don’t let the appearance of AR platform rifles lead you to believe they are more than what they actually are, which is a modern version of the traditional semi-automatic sporting rifle.

Jade Helm Update: It’s About Mass Extinction

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EPA, FDA stocking up on body armor during President Obama’s watch EPA, VA, FDA among those nabbing heavy armaments

As the U.S. engages in a national debate over the militarization of the police, federal data shows that government agencies charged with largely administrative roles are spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase SWAT and military-style equipment.
Since FY 2006, 44 traditionally administrative agencies have spent over $71 million on items like body armor, riot helmets and shields, cannon launchers and police firearms and ammunition, according to federal spending data from watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com.

 

This comes in addition to the $330 million spent on such equipment in that period by traditional law enforcement agencies like the FBI, Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Administration.

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Some examples of the purchases include:
• Nearly $2 million spent by the Department of Veterans Affairs on riot helmets, defender shields, body armor, a “milo return fire cannon system,” armored mobile shields, Kevlar blankets, tactical gear and equipment for crowd control.

• Over $300,000 spent by the Food and Drug Administration on “ballistic vests and carriers” in fiscal 2014.

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• Over $200,000 on body armor spent by the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration years, versus just $30,000 in the three previous fiscal years.
• More than $28,000 by the Smithsonian Institution on body armor for its “zoo police and security officers” in fiscal 2012.
Spending watchdogs say these examples, highlighted in an upcoming oversight report by OpenTheBooks.com titled “Arming of the Federal Agencies,” point to a trend of duplicitous federal law enforcement agencies run amok.
“Spending $71.1 million on body armor outside of traditional law enforcement agencies raises troubling questions. It’s no surprise Gallup found that nearly 50 percent of Americans believe the federal government is a threat to their liberty,” said Adam Andrzejewski, founder of OpenTheBooks.com and author of the oversight report.
“Living in D.C., one gets a sense of the growing police power of the federal government when you increasingly see official cars emblazoned with ‘fill-in-the-blank-agency Police Service’ for obscure bureaucracies you’ve hardly even heard of,” said Chris Edwards, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute.
For spending tens of millions of dollars on body armor and other protective gear for duplicative police forces, the VA, EPA, FDA and 41 other administrative agencies win this week’s Golden Hammer, a weekly distinction awarded by The Washington Times highlighting examples of wasteful federal spending.
“When agencies like the Bureau of Public Debt and Small Business Administration are spending money on body armor and bulletproof vests, it is an indicator of bloat in those agencies’ budgets and the wasteful incentive to spend every dime before the fiscal year-end,” Mr. Edwards said.
Federal agencies employ roughly 120,000 full-time officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests, according to a June 2012 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Administrative agencies with special police like the EPA, IRS and NOAA argue that their officers, just like other law enforcement officers, always face the potential for physical confrontation and must therefore be armed and ready.
Other agencies are required by Congress to have their own officers.
“Under the law (38 USC 902) VA police officers are appointed and trained to enforce Federal law within the Department’s jurisdiction. Because they are in every VA Medical Center, and the properties are Federally owned, the officers are the first responders to active threat incidents, civil disturbances or similar incidents,” a spokesman for the VA said in a statement to The Washington Times. “Facilities do receive excellent support from local police agencies, but our guys will be the first to respond.”
In a statement to The Times, a spokeswoman for the FDA said the agency’s Office of Criminal Investigations employs special agents that have the authority to obtain and execute arrest and search warrants, carry firearms and gather evidence to enforce U.S. criminal law on matters relating to the FDA.
“OCI provides its special agents with numerous resources to support investigations OCI Special Agents are dedicated to protecting the health and welfare of the public by investigating criminal allegations falling within the jurisdiction of the FDA,” the spokeswoman said.
Some agencies like the EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management have come under fire in recent years for conducting raid-like operations with heavily armed agents. In 2013 armed EPA officers raided the town of Chicken, Alaska. The agency said the raid was conducted to look for possible violations of the Clean Water Act.
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In some cases Congress might require an agency to install its own police force when federal authorities won’t take on the job.
According to Paul Larkin, a senior legal research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a former special agent in charge with the EPA criminal enforcement program, the FBI was asked to take on the role of environmental law enforcement in 1986, but the bureau turned down the job, citing its newly added responsibilities in the war on drugs.
He added that administrative agencies also have an incentive to create their own police forces because it provides them the authority to bring criminal charges against someone that will not cooperate in a civil settlement on a special interest matter, like environmental violations.
“We have too many federal agencies with law enforcement authorities. If you’re going to give somebody law enforcement authorities, there are certain expenses that come with it. The problem is that we have given law enforcement authority to far too many different agencies,” Mr. Larkin said.
He argued that administrative federal agencies should not handle their own criminal investigations, but should transfer those probes to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Several reports from the Government Accountability Office have highlighted concerns with the growing number of law enforcement officers at federal agencies over the year.
In 1996 32 agencies employed 4,262 law enforcement personnel, an increase of 70 percent since 1987, according to a GAO report.
A 2006 GAO report showed there were 25,000 sworn officers in smaller government agencies, excluding departments commonly associated with crime-fighting.
And that number has continued to balloon despite growing criticism.