Thread: AZ: Agents armed with guns that shoot paint, pepper

Agents armed with guns that shoot paint, pepper
Oct. 3, 2007 12:00 AM

The Border Patrol is arming agents in Arizona with compressed-air guns that will fire pepper spray and indelible paint at uncooperative border crossers.

The introduction of the non-lethal weapons, which should help subdue combative immigrants, comes as Border Patrol agents report escalating violence along the border. The devices will initially be given to agents in the Tucson, Yuma and San Diego sectors, where agents have reported the biggest increases in assaults.

In the Tucson Sector, Border Patrol agents fired guns 16 times from October 2006 to July 31. They were fired at seven times during that period and assaulted 179 times. A year before, agents fired shots seven times, were shot at 10 times and assaulted 214 times. Most assaults involve rock-throwing. advertisement

Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Rick DeWitt said a model of the pepper-spray gun, which has been used since 2001, has proved invaluable. In 2003, he was pinned down by rock-throwers as a woman and her child were sneaking through a hole in the Nogales fence. He was able to arrest them safely only after a backup agent fired a pepper-spray ball at the rock-throwers.

"The decision to use any of the several weapons that agents may be equipped with is completely up to the individual agent and his (or) her perception of the danger or physical harm that he (or) she faces," Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said in a written statement.

- Sean Holstege

www.azcentral.com

Let's just hope that crap traitor glutton Sutton doesn't throw BP agents in prison for using paint guns and pepper because they broke the fingernail or caused a sneezing frenzy of an illegal.

Originally Posted by sippy

Let's just hope that crap traitor glutton Sutton doesn't throw BP agents in prison for using paint guns and pepper because they broke the fingernail or caused a sneezing frenzy of an illegal.