Veterans Affairs Purchased $25.5 Million In Guns, Ammunition and Military-Style Equipment

Since 2010, Veterans Affairs (VA) spent $25.5 million on guns, 11 million rounds of ammunition, and other military-style equipment such as camouflage uniforms, riot helmets and shields, specialized image enhancement devices, and tactical lighting.

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com quantified the spending using data released subject to the “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006” and Freedom of Information Act requests.

In 1996, the VA did not employ a police force.

Today, however, the VA has 4,547 law enforcement officers armed with weapons including semi-automatic “long-guns” (i.e., AR-15-style). The number of officers is up by nearly 700 just since 2016.

Yet, since 2016, the VA has refused to respond to our request to disclose their crime statistics.

However, in September 2020, the non-partisan, congressional watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) studied the VA’s “use of force” database.

The GAO found that the use of force was rare. When documented by the VA, however, the reporting was incomplete, inaccurate, duplicative, and not broken out by medical center.

The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.