More powerful air gun slated for use by agents along border
By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 4, 2007
Border Patrol agents in the agency's San Diego, Yuma and Tucson sectors will soon begin using a more powerful compressed-air gun to fire pepper or ink
balls at illegal border crossers during violent confrontations.
The device, called an FN 303, can shoot the filled plastic projectiles 225 feet, said Andrea Zortman, a spokeswoman for the agency in Washington, D.C.
The pepper-ball launchers currently used by agents have a range of about 60 feet.
Training in how to use the FN 303 has been going on for some time, and the devices will be used in the field within a few months, Zortman said
yesterday. They will first be used in San Diego and Arizona because that is where the most violence against agents has occurred, she said. Eventually
the air guns will be distributed for use nationwide.
Zortman said there were 893 assaults on Border Patrol agents nationwide between Oct. 1, 2006, and Aug. 31, versus 752 for all of the previous year.
In San Diego, there were 238 attacks on agents between Oct. 1, 2006, and the beginning of this month.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in assaults on our Border Patrol agents, a lot coming from a greater distance,” Zortman said. “There are rocks
thrown, bottles thrown, vehicle assaults, shootings. We want to be able to have our agents address the situation, and potentially defuse it, at a
lower level of lethality than using his or her firearm.”
Agents are armed with .40-caliber handguns and collapsible batons, and can check out a pepper-ball launcher at the beginning of a shift if they
anticipate needing one, Zortman said. The ink component, which is new, is to mark smuggling suspects or attackers for potential arrest by authorities
on either side of the border.
The agency refers to the FN 303 as “less lethal,” rather than nonlethal. Fatalities have occurred: In October 2004, a 21-year-old female college
student died in Boston after being struck in the eye by a pepper ball fired from an FN 303 used by officers to control crowds celebrating the Red
Sox's pennant win that year.
The Mexican Consulate is critical of the use of pepper-ball launchers for the same reason. In Imperial County this year, two Mexican teenagers were
hit by pepper balls fired by agents, and one boy now stands an 80 percent chance of losing an eye, said Pablo Arnaud, the Mexican consul in Calexico.
A 20-year-old Mexican man died there in March after an agent-involved shooting with a firearm.
Zortman said part of the idea is to cut down on agent-involved gun shootings. Agent Matthew Johnson in the San Diego sector said 14 such shootings
have taken place locally since Oct. 1 of last year.
A fatal agent-involved shooting took place in Escondido in May, when an agent shot and killed a smuggling suspect who, it was later discovered, was a
legal resident.
I am wondering: Being an air gun, are they legal for us to carry in Mexico? I doubt it since the Mexican Consulate has objected to their use by border
patrol agents. I bet there are some surfers who would like to shoot a bad guy in the eye along HWY 1 in TJ at 3:30 AM.
Can we buy one in the U.S. over the counter, without permits?
How many illegals have been killed by the border patrols' .40-handguns?DENNIS - 10-4-2007 at 02:04 PM
Do you think the drug smugglers will switch to air guns? Maybe one of those big round pistols that go POOF and blow a huge smoke ring. It's becoming
a kinder, more gentle border. Maybe next year, they'll all switch to water baloons.comitan - 10-4-2007 at 02:23 PM
Dennis
They shoot pepper spray, if you have ever had strong pepper spray in your eye, there only one thing you want and thats to wash it out.Bajafun777 - 10-4-2007 at 09:10 PM
Yea,
"Red Saber" it is an instant success with its smell, eye stinging, nose running, ear burning and mouth air sucking sound that just makes the fighting
seem sooooooo not worthwhile!!!! Later====bajafun777
!!!! Later====bajafun777