A lot of folks might be shocked that the IRS buys guns:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division.
Having had numerous high school friends go to work for the IRS, and also being friends with a former IRS CID investigator, I’m fully aware they have armed agents. Here in Southern Utah they need them for tax raids on the polygamists that view welfare benefits as AWESOME but taxes as for gentiles.
But, when you see something this specific:
The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
You know the RFQ is rigged for a specific vendor and you get a little taste in the little ways government bureaucracy corruption taints, ever so slightly, everything it touches.
The “slight” taint, multiplied by the sheer size (2.15 million employees) eventually stinks pretty bad.
I don’t mind IRS armed agents getting the gun they want. But they ought to just admit “this is what we want” and not rig a procurement with bogus language and rationalizations.
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:06 pm
If you have never been on the government side of a competitive procurement, you might not know why the specs seem excessively detailed. Procurement regulations are quite complex to prevent frauds the like of which you might never imagine. Each line in the Federal Acquisition Regulations has been put there to prevent some known potential fraud. The buyer also wants to limit the number of uncompetitive proposals to be reviewed, analyzed, and their rejection explained. You do believe in small government with few and low paid servants, don’t you?
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Yes I do. I’d rather they just buy what they want, as long as it is published right away.