Art del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector union, says the move is politically motivated.
KVOA.com reports the following:
The News 4 Tucson Investigators have uncovered that some U.S. Border Patrol agents have lost a key part of their arsenal. And that has agents who patrol along the border here, extremely worried.
We learned that U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Offices of Border Patrol and Training and Development are inspecting the quality of agents’ M4 carbines throughout Border Patrol sectors nationwide. But agents tell us, some of those M4s have not been replaced. And, we’ve learned, agents are required to share rifles amongst each other. [...]
The M4 carbine is used by the U.S. military and by Border Patrol agents. It’s even used by the Border Patrol’s tactical unit, BORTAC. Agent Brian Terry was carrying the M4 when he was shot and killed in December 2010.
Del Cueto tells us that because some of those M4s have not been replaced, agents are pooling their weapons, which makes it difficult to personalize the settings on a rifle, such as the sights. [...]
He said agents stand the risk of being over-powered on the border. [...]
Prather believes removing some of the rifles maybe politically motivated. He says he was told that many of these guns are being removed for issues that are easily repaired like the firing pin and bolt.
He broke down a M4 as he spoke.
“This weapon is designed to be able to be in a battle situation, changed out rather quickly even so fast that modern weapons have areas to hold spare bolts,” he said.
That makes him suspicious that the agency could be disarming its agents.
For now, union president Del Cueto says agents just want their rifles back.
“I hope they replace these weapons as soon as possible or give us some kind of answer as to how they plan on replacing them,” he said.
Hat Tip http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
