Title: Bite the Bullet - We've Got Too Many Agencies With Armed Agents - TheBlaze
Headings: Bite the Bullet - We've Got Too Many Agencies With Armed Agents
Bite the Bullet - We've Got Too Many Agencies With Armed Agents
As of 2011, there are at least 25,000 sworn (and armed) law enforcement officers working for federal agencies not traditionally associated with law enforcement.

Content: All of this leads to the question: Why do so many federal agencies need bullets? While the government claims it needs the ammunition for training-- that is exactly the problem. The expansion of the federal law enforcement and regulatory apparatus should be deeply troubling for anyone who believes in limited government and federalism. America has too many national authorities employing their own armed officers to police a vast and growing array of federal statutes. And in the process, these Feds trample on the police powers left to the states under the Constitution. The growth of the federal law enforcement bureaucracy has jumped dramatically over the last 20 years. There are now 73 federal agencies that have armed officers, often called “special agents.” And all of these agencies now cordon off and enforce a federal fiefdom of the more than 4,500 criminal laws at the federal level and thousands of additional regulations that have sprung up in recent decades. The result is a panoply of specialized, niche enforcement organizations that will be tasked to balance the rights of U.S. citizens with a need to justify their budgets.