Unless your name is Rip Van Winkle, you've seen ads on television suggesting that if you're behind on your tax returns, or owe the IRS a lot of money, you need to engage the services of a tax attorney who specializes in dealing with the agency. Similar ads also flood radio, at least on my station, and warn about the brutality of the IRS. While I rarely believe much I see or hear in advertisements, I submit that at least some of these ads must be based on facts.

Earlier this week the IRS posted on their website a solicitation looking for bids from which to buy sixty shotguns. Shotguns are among the many, many things about which I know little, enjoying only one session at a skeet range many years ago. But I do read about them, and have actually already picked out one I'd like to buy, so I do have a passing knowledge of some of the terminology.

Our tax enforcers are looking to buy the Remington Model 870 Police, 12 gauge, pump shotgun. I was not able to find a picture of the "police" model, so have shown the Model 870 Express instead. The required guns are to have a fourteen inch barrel. Now some of you may know that shotgun barrels of less than eighteen inches are generally illegal in this country, other than in special circumstances. You may also know that, depending on the choke, shorter barrels generally produce a wider pellet spread.

Pellet spread is a factor because, unlike most handguns and rifles, shotguns don't usually shoot cartridges containing one bullet. They normally shoot shells, which contain a number of pellets. The 12 gauge "double ought buck" shotgun shell generally contains between 12 and 15 pellets, each one a third of an inch in diameter. (I've outlined the double ought in this life size chart.) Firing a shotgun tears away the plastic shell and launches the pellets down the smooth bore of the gun. Based on what I can find online, from eighteen feet away, the spread of a 12 gauge shotgun is around six inches. Of course that's with a barrel length of 18 t0 20 inches.

Finally the capacity of the Remington 870 shotgun varies by model. The Express Home version has a capacity of five shells if you include one in the firing chamber, the Express Tactical a total of seven. I could not find anything on the Express Police model, but I'd not bet the capacity is less than either of those two. Think about it. If the capacity is seven, then in far less than a minute an IRS agent could fire between eighty four and one hundred five, one-third inch lead pellets. At you. Or me. Just imagine nearly a hundred pellets entering your chest, all within a six inch circle.

I'm not sure exactly against whom the IRS intends to use these guns, but then I don't think they should have access to them regardless of their targets. I sincerely hope they change their tactics should I ever be targeted.

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