53percenter's Blog

The gun control “Ban Assault Weapons Now” is pushing a ballot initiative to ban the ownership of “assault weapons” in the state of Florida.

The group’s steering committee includes gun control Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Parkland), and committee members include Parkland students who survived the February 14, 2018, attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Fox 35 reports that the group is working with a “California-based company” for petitions in order to get the necessary signatures to get the initiative on the ballot for 2020. Outside companies/groups/financiers have been a big part of the gun control initiatives that changed Washington state from gun-friendly to one of the most stringently gun-controlled states in the union.

And even though Nevada’s 2016 gun control initiative was proclaimed null and void, it did pass, and that passage largely depended on the fact that it was “bankrolled” by Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group.

“Ban Assault Weapons Now” explains their goal:

Florida law allows its citizens to propose amendments to the state constitution by petition, which will then be placed before voters in a general election. The NRA and gun manufacturers may hold sway over politicians, but they don’t control our voices, our votes. The numbers are on our side. According to a February 20th poll from MSNBC, 67 percent of Americans support an assault weapons ban. A poll from Florida Atlantic University reports that 70 percent of Florida voters favor an assault weapons ban.

A focus on banning “assault weapons” is misplaced, as they are not the weapons of choice for mass shooters. The Rockefeller Institute of Government studied a 50-year time-frame and found that handguns were the weapon of choice by a margin of three to one. But handguns are also the weapon of choice for the nearly 18 million concealed carry permit holders who carry a firearm for self-defense daily.

Rather than type of gun, the real problem is time. And time is on any attacker’s side when they step into a gun-free zone to attack innocents. For example, Breitbart News reported that the Parkland attacker paused five times to reload during his attack. He had no reason to be in a hurry, as no one could shoot back at him.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has released its latest doomsday climate report. This organization, part of the federal government, has been in business for a long time, releasing nonsense reports concerning the supposed global warming threat.  I attended meetings of the federal advisory committee associated with the program in 2011 and wrote an article about that particular circus. Federal advisory committees are supposed to be committees of experts with a diversity of viewpoints. The committee in 2011 consisted of supposed experts with only one point of view, that we are threatened by doomsday global warming.

The USGCRP suffers from a lack of imagination. Its reports imitate the style and approach of the United Nations International Panel On Climate Change (IPCC). The USGCRP uses the IPCC as a trusted source. The problem is that the IPCC is not to be trusted. One idea broached at the 2011 meeting is present in the 2018 report.  In 2011 the activists wrestled with the problem that nobody was paying much attention to their reports. They decided that there should be customized reports for different parts of the U.S. The idea was that people would be more concerned if there were specific doomsday predictions for their neighborhood. The country was divided into regions as shown in the map below. Doomsday forecasts for the regions are taken from climate models, sometimes supplemented by a procedure known as downscaling.

The trouble with climate models is that their output is not a plausible representation of the climate of the Earth. The in words of the distinguished climate scientist Kevin Trenberth, no climate skeptic: “…none of the climate states in the models corresponds even remotely to the current observed climate.”

The climate models are very large black boxes. They are far too complicated to make sense of what is going on. The way the models are used to create predictions or projections of future climate is determined by political, not scientific considerations. The results of the many models are simply averaged together to create an ensemble of climate models that is used to make the doomsday predictions. Instead of using the best model to make predictions, all the models are used as if every model is as good as every other model.

The reason for this is political. If a “best” model were selected, the scientifically correct approach, that would be breaking the rice bowl of all the losing modeling groups. That would lead to a loss of unity among the many modeling groups supping at the various government troughs. People mutually looting the government treasury stick together. If they fight with each other, they all lose.

The 468 page report released by the USGCRP is filled with speculative claims presented as if they are established science. The authors use “expert Judgement” to support their conclusions. The experts have an obvious financial and emotional stake in global warming doomsday scenarios. If the global warming doomsday is shown to be imaginary, the experts will lose their financial support and in many cases their jobs.

The climate of the last 118 years is a clear demonstration of the fallacy of using climate models to predict the future climate. Carbon dioxide, according the theories supported by the IPCC and the USGCRP, had insignificant influence on climate prior to 1975. Yet, from 1910 to 1940 the Earth warmed strongly, not as a response to CO2. What caused that early century warming? No one knows. It is a mystery to this day. The only thing we know for sure is that it was not caused by CO2.

From 1975 to 2000, a very similar strong warming took place. According to the apostilles of global warming, that late century warming was caused exclusively by CO2. How do they know that the late century warming was not caused by the same mysterious force that caused the early century warming? They don’t, but they claim it because it is politically convenient. From 2000 to the present there has been little global warming, probably none if the influence of tropical El Nino events is discounted.

There are many ways to explain anything that happens in the climate. The lack of warming in the 21^st century is often explained by claiming that heat is hiding in the ocean. Conveniently, there are no good measurements of heat hiding in the ocean.

The early versus late century warming is only one example of many contradictions in global warming theory. The contradictions and holes in the theory are ignored and swept under the rug. Global warming theory is politically motivated science, not real science. Scientists are behaving like other special interests dependent on government funding. They make up doomsday theories supported by a cloud of incomprehensible scientific jargon.

The many scientists that dispute this junk science are ruthlessly attacked and marginalized. There is an extensive literature written by global warming skeptics, many of whom are credentialed scientists. This body of literature is ignored rather than refuted. Rather than engage the skeptics in honest debate, the doomsday promoters accuse them of being paid off by oil companies.

Some of the things other than CO2 and greenhouse gases that can affect climate are the overturning circulation of the oceans, the magnetic field of the sun, the periodic cycles of ocean temperature, and chaotic variation. These other forces affecting climate are invoked only when they are convenient for explaining failures of the CO2 theory. In addition, there may be unknown forces, yet to be discovered.

The brazenness of the fake science is often shocking. Supposedly many Pacific islands are going to be flooded by sea level rise to be caused by global warming. These islands survived 400 feet of sea level rise at the end of the ice age 10,000 years ago, a much faster sea level rise than is currently taking place. They survived because they are coral islands that grow upward as the sea level rises. This is  not a secret, but the advocates of global warming terror use these islands as an example of horrible things that will be caused by global warming. One wonders why the New York Times does not expose this brazen fraud.

Junk science and fake science are not limited to global warming. They are invading many important areas of science. For example, the danger of low level radiation has been exaggerated by persistent use of a model not supported by data. The supposed danger of PM2.5 or small particles, smaller than 2.5 microns, that are suspended in the air, has been exaggerated without good evidence. The danger of DDT was exaggerated with the result that millions of children were killed by malaria. In each case there are special interests that profit from spreading junk science. Stories predicting disaster sell and the science establishment is selling.

The global warming scare is used to provide ideological support for wind and solar energy. Billions of dollars have been wasted on useless wind and solar energy. My book, Dumb Energy, explains in detail why this so-called renewable energy is economically useless. Wind and solar are not even effective for reducing CO2 emissions.

The corruption of science has its roots in the political funding of science by the federal government. Somehow we have to make it less profitable for scientists to make up science. Peer review is a joke and doesn’t work. Certainly it would help if the public and the media were skeptical about any scientific theory that predicts a disaster unless we do what the scientists and their allies want us to do.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has released its latest doomsday climate report. This organization, part of the federal government, has been in business for a long time, releasing nonsense reports concerning the supposed global warming threat.  I attended meetings of the federal advisory committee associated with the program in 2011 and wrote an article about that particular circus. Federal advisory committees are supposed to be committees of experts with a diversity of viewpoints. The committee in 2011 consisted of supposed experts with only one point of view, that we are threatened by doomsday global warming.

The USGCRP suffers from a lack of imagination. Its reports imitate the style and approach of the United Nations International Panel On Climate Change (IPCC). The USGCRP uses the IPCC as a trusted source. The problem is that the IPCC is not to be trusted. One idea broached at the 2011 meeting is present in the 2018 report.  In 2011 the activists wrestled with the problem that nobody was paying much attention to their reports. They decided that there should be customized reports for different parts of the U.S. The idea was that people would be more concerned if there were specific doomsday predictions for their neighborhood. The country was divided into regions as shown in the map below. Doomsday forecasts for the regions are taken from climate models, sometimes supplemented by a procedure known as downscaling.

Source: US Global Chnage Research Report

The trouble with climate models is that their output is not a plausible representation of the climate of the Earth. The in words of the distinguished climate scientist Kevin Trenberth, no climate skeptic: “…none of the climate states in the models corresponds even remotely to the current observed climate.”

The climate models are very large black boxes. They are far too complicated to make sense of what is going on. The way the models are used to create predictions or projections of future climate is determined by political, not scientific considerations. The results of the many models are simply averaged together to create an ensemble of climate models that is used to make the doomsday predictions. Instead of using the best model to make predictions, all the models are used as if every model is as good as every other model.

The reason for this is political. If a “best” model were selected, the scientifically correct approach, that would be breaking the rice bowl of all the losing modeling groups. That would lead to a loss of unity among the many modeling groups supping at the various government troughs. People mutually looting the government treasury stick together. If they fight with each other, they all lose.

The 468 page report released by the USGCRP is filled with speculative claims presented as if they are established science. The authors use “expert Judgement” to support their conclusions. The experts have an obvious financial and emotional stake in global warming doomsday scenarios. If the global warming doomsday is shown to be imaginary, the experts will lose their financial support and in many cases their jobs.

The climate of the last 118 years is a clear demonstration of the fallacy of using climate models to predict the future climate. Carbon dioxide, according the theories supported by the IPCC and the USGCRP, had insignificant influence on climate prior to 1975. Yet, from 1910 to 1940 the Earth warmed strongly, not as a response to CO2. What caused that early century warming? No one knows. It is a mystery to this day. The only thing we know for sure is that it was not caused by CO2.

From 1975 to 2000, a very similar strong warming took place. According to the apostilles of global warming, that late century warming was caused exclusively by CO2. How do they know that the late century warming was not caused by the same mysterious force that caused the early century warming? They don’t, but they claim it because it is politically convenient. From 2000 to the present there has been little global warming, probably none if the influence of tropical El Nino events is discounted.

There are many ways to explain anything that happens in the climate. The lack of warming in the 21^st century is often explained by claiming that heat is hiding in the ocean. Conveniently, there are no good measurements of heat hiding in the ocean.

The early versus late century warming is only one example of many contradictions in global warming theory. The contradictions and holes in the theory are ignored and swept under the rug. Global warming theory is politically motivated science, not real science. Scientists are behaving like other special interests dependent on government funding. They make up doomsday theories supported by a cloud of incomprehensible scientific jargon.

The many scientists that dispute this junk science are ruthlessly attacked and marginalized. There is an extensive literature written by global warming skeptics, many of whom are credentialed scientists. This body of literature is ignored rather than refuted. Rather than engage the skeptics in honest debate, the doomsday promoters accuse them of being paid off by oil companies.

Some of the things other than CO2 and greenhouse gases that can affect climate are the overturning circulation of the oceans, the magnetic field of the sun, the periodic cycles of ocean temperature, and chaotic variation. These other forces affecting climate are invoked only when they are convenient for explaining failures of the CO2 theory. In addition, there may be unknown forces, yet to be discovered.

The brazenness of the fake science is often shocking. Supposedly many Pacific islands are going to be flooded by sea level rise to be caused by global warming. These islands survived 400 feet of sea level rise at the end of the ice age 10,000 years ago, a much faster sea level rise than is currently taking place. They survived because they are coral islands that grow upward as the sea level rises. This is  not a secret, but the advocates of global warming terror use these islands as an example of horrible things that will be caused by global warming. One wonders why the New York Times does not expose this brazen fraud.

Junk science and fake science are not limited to global warming. They are invading many important areas of science. For example, the danger of low level radiation has been exaggerated by persistent use of a model not supported by data. The supposed danger of PM2.5 or small particles, smaller than 2.5 microns, that are suspended in the air, has been exaggerated without good evidence. The danger of DDT was exaggerated with the result that millions of children were killed by malaria. In each case there are special interests that profit from spreading junk science. Stories predicting disaster sell and the science establishment is selling.

The global warming scare is used to provide ideological support for wind and solar energy. Billions of dollars have been wasted on useless wind and solar energy. My book, Dumb Energy, explains in detail why this so-called renewable energy is economically useless. Wind and solar are not even effective for reducing CO2 emissions.

The corruption of science has its roots in the political funding of science by the federal government. Somehow we have to make it less profitable for scientists to make up science. Peer review is a joke and doesn’t work. Certainly it would help if the public and the media were skeptical about any scientific theory that predicts a disaster unless we do what the scientists and their allies want us to do.

The old joke that if it weren’t for double standards, the MSM would have no standards at all certainly applies to the cascade of hysterical media coverage of the use of tear gas to repel rock-throwing invaders at the San Ysidro border crossing.  When the Obama administration used tear gas at the border to repel invaders, there was no tidal wave of outrage.

Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reminds us:

The same tear-gas agent that the Trump administration is taking heat for deploying against a border mob this weekend is actually used fairly frequently – including more than once a month during the later years of President Barack Obama’s administration, according to Homeland Security data.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, or CS, since 2010, and deployed it 26 times in fiscal 2012 and 27 times in 2013.  The use dropped after that, but was still deployed three times in 2016, Mr. Obama’s final full year in office. …

Border authorities also use another agent, pepper spray, frequently – including a decade-high record of 151 instances in 2013, also under Mr. Obama.  Pepper spray, officially known as Pava Capsaicin, was used 43 times in fiscal year 2018, according to the CBP numbers.

Senator Brian Schatz – evidently ignorant of this track record – beclowned himself with the invocation of a war crime of “chemical weapons” before deleting his ridiculous tweet.

The fact is that rock-throwers assaulting border guards were lucky that such restraint was exercised during their assault.  As I predicted yesterday, nobody in the MSM admits that the Obama administration not only used bullets in response to rock-throwers attacking border guards, a Department of Justice study justified it.

The new angle being used by some is to decry “using tear gas on children.”  Don Lemon of CNN went on a rant yesterday denouncing President Trump for this sin, and for not acknowledging that children were being used as human shields during the border assault, much as Saddam Hussein used innocent civilians to deter bombing of his war-making facilities.  Allowing such human shields to achieve their goal only encourages more abuse of innocents.

CNN screen grab via Grabien.

That stream visible behind the children is sewage.  What kind of parent brings young children traipsing across a river of sewage to attack a border?  That is child abuse, but nary a peep from Lemon or any of the other Trump critics about that.

Update: The picture used by Lemon is apparently faked – posed, as this tweet shows:

#FakeNews Media all share same photo of “women & kids gassed”.



Perpetrators of invasion instantly become victims in new #FakeNews narrative.



Congratulations, you’ve been #Hoaxed! 😀✊🏿✊🏽✊ pic.twitter.com/ISkExrlc2T

— 🇺🇸#WalkAway Mexican J.Lo. (@jetrotter) November 26, 2018

The old joke that if it weren’t for double standards, the MSM would have no standards at all certainly applies to the cascade of hysterical media coverage of the use of tear gas to repel rock-throwing invaders at the San Ysidro border crossing.  When the Obama administration used tear gas at the border to repel invaders, there was no tidal wave of outrage.

Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reminds us:

The same tear-gas agent that the Trump administration is taking heat for deploying against a border mob this weekend is actually used fairly frequently – including more than once a month during the later years of President Barack Obama’s administration, according to Homeland Security data.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, or CS, since 2010, and deployed it 26 times in fiscal 2012 and 27 times in 2013.  The use dropped after that, but was still deployed three times in 2016, Mr. Obama’s final full year in office. …

Border authorities also use another agent, pepper spray, frequently – including a decade-high record of 151 instances in 2013, also under Mr. Obama.  Pepper spray, officially known as Pava Capsaicin, was used 43 times in fiscal year 2018, according to the CBP numbers.

Senator Brian Schatz – evidently ignorant of this track record – beclowned himself with the invocation of a war crime of “chemical weapons” before deleting his ridiculous tweet.

The fact is that rock-throwers assaulting border guards were lucky that such restraint was exercised during their assault.  As I predicted yesterday, nobody in the MSM admits that the Obama administration not only used bullets in response to rock-throwers attacking border guards, a Department of Justice study justified it.

The new angle being used by some is to decry “using tear gas on children.”  Don Lemon of CNN went on a rant yesterday denouncing President Trump for this sin, and for not acknowledging that children were being used as human shields during the border assault, much as Saddam Hussein used innocent civilians to deter bombing of his war-making facilities.  Allowing such human shields to achieve their goal only encourages more abuse of innocents.

CNN screen grab via Grabien.

That stream visible behind the children is sewage.  What kind of parent brings young children traipsing across a river of sewage to attack a border?  That is child abuse, but nary a peep from Lemon or any of the other Trump critics about that.

Update: The picture used by Lemon is apparently faked – posed, as this tweet shows:

#FakeNews Media all share same photo of “women & kids gassed”.



Perpetrators of invasion instantly become victims in new #FakeNews narrative.



Congratulations, you’ve been #Hoaxed! 😀✊🏿✊🏽✊ pic.twitter.com/ISkExrlc2T

— 🇺🇸#WalkAway Mexican J.Lo. (@jetrotter) November 26, 2018

You often see it at the bottom of news stories or in less prominently placed news stories, from the more serious local news outlets near the scene of the Tijuana caravan encampment:

Migrants are taking a look at the lay of the land and deciding to pack up and go home.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Outside the Benito Juárez migrant shelter in Tijuana, dozens stood in line Monday for a chance to return to their home country, a day after chaotic clashes at the border dimmed their hopes of entering the United States.Members of the Central American migrant caravan slumped in a line late afternoon to ask for return passage, after traveling for more than a month and trekking thousands of miles by foot, by bus and crammed into the beds of trucks for days.

Some were tired and reluctantly surrendered their dream of going to the United States, rather than face months more in the overcrowded and unsustainable conditions in Tijuana shelters.

Others said they had economic duties to fulfill in Central America. And a small handful said they did not want to face any legal consequences for the violent confrontations with border agents and Mexican federal police on Sunday.

The Associated Press reported similarly:

There was a steady line outside a shelter at a tent housing the International Organization for Migration, where officials were offering assistance for those who wanted to return to their home countries.

As did CBS8 of San Diego:

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) – Giving up and going home. More than a thousand Central American migrants are doing just that. 

Frustrated and saying there is no chance of a better life in the United States, they boarded vans that will take them back where they came from. 

There seems to be a feeling of desperation even hopelessness in Tijuana among many migrants who made the long journey from Central America to seek asylum in the US. But as the president has repeatedly said, they have to do it the legal way. 

That is proving to be harder than many migrants thought. Vans were seen leaving from Tijuana to El Salvador yesterday. So about 100 people are already being deported.

Obviously, the great grand bid to storm the gringo border and jump in and avail oneself of all the welfare benefits the U.S. has to offer, leftwing lawyers in tow, has failed, and migrants, as it turns out, with no fear of returning to their home countries after all, (contrary to their organizers’ asylum arguments), are going home. Some of them even have the bus fare. Turns out the free stuff wasn’t free. Their quest to enter the U.S. on Tijuana’s hospitality is not popular. And the leftist organizers, promising these migrants instant entry as well as a Chavista-sized banquet of free stuff, courtesy of the gringos, stand exposed as frauds.

So now the migrant caravan is breaking up, and those who seek to enter the U.S. are going to be forced to do it legally. And President Trump, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, have said they are welcome to do that, so it’s not as if a door is shut.

But what we have here – and the media is never going to admit it – is something called winning, a victory for rule of law. Anyone who wants to enter the U.S. — worldwide — has gotten the message from this caravan charge and its big media buildup — that the U.S. is holding firm in defending the integrity of its borders. Any entry to the U.S. must be legal entry. The scruffy barbed border fencing, the double walls, the troops at hand, cobbled together as they were, along with the resolution and will of our leaders, really did do the job. Anyone wanting to bust a border is better off heading to western Europe. Trump — and the voters who sent him to Washington to get this job done – stands victorious. Surprise, surprise, Congress has now gotten serious about border wall funding.

You often see it at the bottom of news stories or in less prominently placed news stories, from the more serious local news outlets near the scene of the Tijuana caravan encampment:

Migrants are taking a look at the lay of the land and deciding to pack up and go home.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Outside the Benito Juárez migrant shelter in Tijuana, dozens stood in line Monday for a chance to return to their home country, a day after chaotic clashes at the border dimmed their hopes of entering the United States.Members of the Central American migrant caravan slumped in a line late afternoon to ask for return passage, after traveling for more than a month and trekking thousands of miles by foot, by bus and crammed into the beds of trucks for days.

Some were tired and reluctantly surrendered their dream of going to the United States, rather than face months more in the overcrowded and unsustainable conditions in Tijuana shelters.

Others said they had economic duties to fulfill in Central America. And a small handful said they did not want to face any legal consequences for the violent confrontations with border agents and Mexican federal police on Sunday.

The Associated Press reported similarly:

There was a steady line outside a shelter at a tent housing the International Organization for Migration, where officials were offering assistance for those who wanted to return to their home countries.

As did CBS8 of San Diego:

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) – Giving up and going home. More than a thousand Central American migrants are doing just that. 

Frustrated and saying there is no chance of a better life in the United States, they boarded vans that will take them back where they came from. 

There seems to be a feeling of desperation even hopelessness in Tijuana among many migrants who made the long journey from Central America to seek asylum in the US. But as the president has repeatedly said, they have to do it the legal way. 

That is proving to be harder than many migrants thought. Vans were seen leaving from Tijuana to El Salvador yesterday. So about 100 people are already being deported.

Obviously, the great grand bid to storm the gringo border and jump in and avail oneself of all the welfare benefits the U.S. has to offer, leftwing lawyers in tow, has failed, and migrants, as it turns out, with no fear of returning to their home countries after all, (contrary to their organizers’ asylum arguments), are going home. Some of them even have the bus fare. Turns out the free stuff wasn’t free. Their quest to enter the U.S. on Tijuana’s hospitality is not popular. And the leftist organizers, promising these migrants instant entry as well as a Chavista-sized banquet of free stuff, courtesy of the gringos, stand exposed as frauds.

So now the migrant caravan is breaking up, and those who seek to enter the U.S. are going to be forced to do it legally. And President Trump, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, have said they are welcome to do that, so it’s not as if a door is shut.

But what we have here – and the media is never going to admit it – is something called winning, a victory for rule of law. Anyone who wants to enter the U.S. — worldwide — has gotten the message from this caravan charge and its big media buildup — that the U.S. is holding firm in defending the integrity of its borders. Any entry to the U.S. must be legal entry. The scruffy barbed border fencing, the double walls, the troops at hand, cobbled together as they were, along with the resolution and will of our leaders, really did do the job. Anyone wanting to bust a border is better off heading to western Europe. Trump — and the voters who sent him to Washington to get this job done – stands victorious. Surprise, surprise, Congress has now gotten serious about border wall funding.

Under the Obama Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) law enforcement officials, including Border Patrol agents, utilized tear gas against migrants at or near the border at least 80 times between FY2012 and early FY2017.

CBP officials reported the use of tear gas and pepper spray to push back “assaultive” caravan migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally on Sunday. The agency began using these particular sprays during the Obama administration in 2010.

Breitbart News confirmed the CBP began using tear gas (2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile – CS) in 2010, though the available usage data initiates in FY2012.

The agency also reportedly began using pepper spray (Pava Capasaicin) at about the same time.

“CBP takes Sunday’s employment of use-of-force very seriously. CBP reviews and evaluates all uses of force incidents to ensure compliance with policy,” a CBP spokesman told Breitbart News in response to an inquiry. “Over 1,000 individuals who were part of the so-called caravan attempted to cross illegally into the U.S. by breaching sections of the fence and using vehicle lanes in and near the San Ysidro Port of Entry. This group ignored law enforcement agencies in Mexico and assaulted U.S. Federal Officers and Agents assigned to respond to the situation in San Diego.”

“As a response to the assaults and to defuse this dangerous situation, trained CBP personnel employed less-lethal devices to stop the actions of assaultive individuals attempting to break into the U.S.,” the spokesman continued. “CBP has been preparing for weeks for events like the one on Sunday. We have seen the use of violence by members of this so-called caravan who have attacked law enforcement personnel in Guatemala, Mexico and now the U.S. CBP will consider using all approved and available resources to protect travelers, caravan members, and our agents and officers.”

The CBP use of force reports show CS tear gas used 126 times since 2012. Officials utilized pepper spray a total of 540 times during that same period.

The current CBP Use of Force Policy handbook (dated May 2014) requires all officers and agents to be trained in the use of all weapons utilized in operations, including less than lethal devices, such as these types of sprays. It also requires the officers and agents to be exposed to the sprays as part of the course of instruction.

During a telephone conference call with news media on Monday, CBP Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said, “Yesterday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers in San Diego effectively managed an extremely dangerous situation involving over 1,000 individuals who sought to enter the U.S. unlawfully in large groups. They did so safely and without any reported serious injuries on either side of the border.”

“As we’ve articulated for several weeks, we have been concerned about the size of the caravan, its primarily single-adult composition, and the aggressive and assaultive behavior at both the Honduras-Guatemala border and the Guatemala-Mexico border,” the commissioner continued. “U.S. government officials have noted the presence of criminals in the group, and the Government of Mexico has arrested over 1,000 caravan members for criminal violations in Mexico.”

“In the course of these events, individuals engaged in active assaults, throwing dozens of projectiles at CBP law enforcement personnel,” McAleenan explained. “Our Border Patrol agents were able to counter this activity, address the attempted group entry, and resolve the assaults with presence and less-lethal device deployments. Elements of the group then staged west of the port of entry and sought to press into the United States in the area of the Tijuana River channel. This group again became assaultive, with rocks and other projectiles thrown at our agents. Again, four agents were struck by projectiles in these assaults.”

Despite media reports to the contrary, CBP officers and agents operating under the Trump Administration responded the same way they did during the Obama Administration when, in 2013, migrants rushed the same stretch of border, Breitbart News’ Neil Munro reported.

Democrat congressional leaders and Hollywood activists teamed up to condemn the Trump Administration’s use of force in defending the border but ignored President Obama’s prior, identical response.

Pop star Rihanna accused the Trump Administration of “terrorism” for spraying tear gas at the border. Others called for the president’s impeachment over the clash.

Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the migrant caravan members are like the Jews fleeing the Holocaust, while Vermont Senator and possible 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called President Trump’s use of force “authoritarian.”

See additional Breitbart News coverage of the Migrant Caravan here.