Newsmax reports that the United States Postal Service is looking for vendors to sell it ammunition, which has upset some people who don’t think the postal workers should be buying ammo …

Add the U.S. Postal Service to the list of federal agencies seeking to purchase what some Second Amendment activists say are alarmingly large quantities of ammunition.

Earlier this year, the USPS posted a notice on its website, under the heading “Assorted Small Arms Ammunition,” that says: “The United States Postal Service intends to solicit proposals for assorted small arms ammunition. If your organization wishes to participate, you must pre-register. This message is only a notification of our intent to solicit proposals.”

This is not as controversial as the media are making it out to be. The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has the oldest origin of all the federal law enforcement agencies, predating the United States itself. It was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1772 when he was the colonial Postmaster General.  The Postal Police employ 1,000 armed uniformed personnel and 1,200 criminal investigators.

One of the more interesting powers the USPIS has is to enforce the government-granted monopoly on the delivery of non-urgent mail. In 1993 they raided the offices of Equifax because the company was suspected of sending non-urgent mail through Fedex instead of the Postal Service. Equifax was fined $30,000.

So next time you are tempted to send your grandmother a birthday card through Fedex, remember that the postal service is armed and dangerous. Send her an email instead.