Border Patrol to Use Paintball Guns on Illegal Migrants
Apr 22nd, 2008 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Immigration, Politics
Email
Facebook
Twitter 
Post to Delicious 
Stumble This Post 
Buzz This Post 
Digg This Post
THE BORDER REPORT
Don’t bring a rock to a gunfight; not even a paintball gunfight.
Claiming that attacks against agents have increased to terrifying levels, the U.S. Border Patrol plans to arm its agents with paintball guns and shoot the got-aways who perpetrate the attacks.
The program will start in June at the San Diego, Yuma and Tucson sectors.
According to the Homeland Security Department’s Request for Proposal, the agency awarded a $2.7 million contract to FNH USA, a subsidiary of FN Herstal, a Belgium corporation. About 1,000 weapons were ordered.
Ostensibly, the paintball shots will only be used to target the rabid little rock-throwers and other aggressive migrants who threaten the agents. Agents in El Paso Sector have logged 48 attacks since the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1. The idea is to mark the aggressor so he can easily be identified
Distributors bill the FN-303 paintball gun as a less than lethal force weapon. They claim the gun is a dissuasive measure that increases law enforcement’s safety. Specifically, they say it gives the “Possibility to control even multiple violent suspects while safely remaining out of reach.”
Frankly, I’ve always disputed the numbers game because there’s more agents. Percentage-wise, I don’t believe that agents are being attacked with any more frequency, there’s just a lot more agents to be attacked.
A quick Google search turns up only a couple of stories where people have been killed by cops carrying paintball guns so I don’t know what the stats are. In 2004, Boston police took full responsibility after a cop shot a 21 year old woman in the eye with a paintball gun.
Now, I suppose this is a damned if you, damned if you don’t type of measure.
If an agent opens up with a Glock, we get shouts of “murderer” and outrage and facts be damned. As a whole, the agency tends to distance itself from trigger-happy agents whenever they come up.
But sooner or later, and you know it’s going to happen; some agent is going to interpret the shooting rules a little too liberally and the media will be waiting across the border as brightly-splattered migrants make their way back to Mexico.
This place becomes more of a circus every day.
– Michel Marizco
burreros don’t throw rocks, they carry automatic weapons and they are always eager to shoot them, the border agents know that…paintball guns are a bad idea, almost suicidal.
[Reply]
“Claiming that attacks against agents have increased to terrifying levels…”
When someone tosses a rock at a BP vehicle, and it bounces off the hood, I imagine that’s included in that list of attacks.
And while getting shot up with paint balls doesn’t appeal to me, it sure beats the alternative, a hollow-point bullet.
We’ll see how this works out, It’ll be interesting to watch.
[Reply]
Ha! That’s what I love about my readers; you people fooking THINK!
[Reply]
…well, i say what i see, i mean, “ilegal” is not just a nickname i use write in this blog…
[Reply]
Here are some practical arguments as to why I disagree with the US government spending $3 million bucks on a terrible idea. First off, rule number one in any hunting situation, wait at least 15 minutes after the shot has been fired to move in on the prey, the reason is that a wounded animal has a surge of adrenaline that is not able to be duplicated in any other scenario except when their life is threatened. They are able to run faster, longer, and stronger, there are instances all the time when a hunter wound’s a deer, and the deer is able to run off for 20 miles in full speed, when the hunter finds the animal dead from the wound a week later the meat is rotten. Same thing applies here, you ever been shot with a paintball gun? They fooking hurt, and I’m sure these military grade weapons will pack an even greater punch then the standard paintball weapon. Shoot someone (especially an illegal) with one of these and that guy is gone, he is going to run faster, harder, stronger, and longer then those BP guys are used to.
Second argument, when you are the one pulling the trigger a complete opposite happens to you, instead of a rush of energy, you go through a rush somewhat near to hyperventilation. Even though the physical aspects of pulling a trigger are small (being a one finger motion, and I guess you could include the process of bringing the weapon to your shoulder) your body goes into a state of “freaking out”. You become overwhelmed almost, the Navy SEALs began to notice this, and they combat it with a rigorous process involving push-ups, sit-ups, and other calisthenics that you must perform PRIOR to qualifying on the firing range. This helps to overcome the post firing fatigue that happens to a soldier after firing a weapon. This is real, you don’t believe me, go track a deer or whatever they have down there in Tuscon, shoot him, and then try to run after him, you’ll feel winded.
Third, what if the guy just takes his shirt off?
I have to say a lot of this if not all of it is brought on b/c of Ramos and Campean, those guys fooked things up for their comrades, not for the fact that they shot the guy, but for the fact that they didn’t kill him. You learn to use or fire a weapon for deadly force, and for that reason only, not to wound. A lawyer told me once “anyone breaks into the house or you are in a situation where you have to use deadly force, you make sure you kill the other person…a dead body can’t talk.”
This thinking, this paintball idea is done by the same desk jockey that decided to blow $20 million bucks on the Virtual Fence, which was scrapped the other day, why? You scumbag’s up there in Washington either fix the problem or don’t, it really doesn’t bother me, but quit wasting our fooking MONEY!
[Reply]
A little taste…
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=whHJ7os2v6w
[Reply]
And, they outsourced it!
Isn’t there an American Paint Ball Gun manufacturing company?
[Reply]
[...] Occasionally, a reader’s comment is compelling enough to merit its own posting on The Border Report. Here’s one from Will about the Border Patrol’s plan to use paintball guns on aggressive migrants. [...]