TSA Preparing to Arm Agents as VIPR Teams Expand Domestic Operations

Agency to Purchase 24 Million Rounds of .357 SIG “Duty” Ammunition 

The Transportation Safety Administration has solicited a request to purchase 24 million rounds of .357 SIG “Duty” ammunition over a five year period, according to a posting on FedBizOpps. The posting states the ammo will be used at “DHS component locations nationwide.”

The solicitation has made it clear the TSA seeks to arm its workers, as the union representing TSA workers previously signaled support of. David Borer, general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees, told The Hill that TSA agents need to be armed because “our officers are verbally assaulted every day.” It should not be surprising that many Americans resent having their right to privacy violated, and their bodies groped, by the TSA every time they travel through an airport.

It should be noted that the solicitation was made under the auspices of the TSA, as opposed to some other agency within the Department of “Homeland” Security. This ammo purchase, combined with the TSA’s recent hiring of a local gun range near LaGuardia Airport in New York, lends support to the belief that the TSA intends to arm its workers. Currently a small number of Federal Air Marshals under the TSA’s jurisdiction (approximately 4000) are armed, primarily with the SIG Sauer P229 compact handgun chambered in .357 SIG. The large ammo purchase by the TSA would amount to 6000 rounds for every one Air Marshal, an unusually high number for agents who train to target the head and torso of suspects.

Just as Jesse Jackson called for last year, the TSA has expanded its operations outside airports to include train stations, subway stops, large public events and even on our highways. The TSA established Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) squads to “provide security and counterterrorism operations for all high-risk transportation targets,” according to agency Administrator John Pistole. In 2013, commuters at Union Station in New York were surprised to find armed VIPR squad members moving through the crowd with bomb-sniffing dogs, stopping random passengers to ask security questions.

For a time, the Amtrak Police Chief banned the VIPR teams from operating inside Amtrak stations, but eventually yielded after receiving pressure from the TSA and DHS.

Not limited to transportation hubs, VIPR teams were spotted patrolling Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival in 2012.

NFL fans at a game between the Packers and the Vikings in Minnesota in 2012 were treated to armed VIPR agents and a surveillance drone. Fans who attended the Super Bowl earlier this year were met with a dragnet of security consisting of VIPR agents, multiple layers of checkpoints and bag searches, NYPD gunboats and a low-flying helicopter.

Not content to violate the rights of Americans who travel by mass transit or attend large events, the TSA has expanded its VIPR teams to conduct “highway inspections.”

The TSA’s solicitation for 24 million rounds of .357 SIG ammo is especially concerning due to the fact it comes as the use of VIPR squads is expanded throughout the United States. It is clear the TSA intends to arm the remainder of its workers and expand their use to become a new domestic occupation force. The creation of a “Checkpoint State”, where citizens are stopped, searched and intimidated by federal VIPR teams is further evidence the United States is collapsing into a Soviet-style police state. The presumption of “innocence until proven guilty” will be abolished and the 4^th amendment gutted.

The American people must realize that, as long as we tacitly condone the creation of a checkpoint-dominated police state, the globalists will never stop. If the majority of Americans continue to act like sheep, we will all be destroyed by the wolves. It’s time to defend our freedom, liberty and rights, and stand up to the Police State.