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