Russian gun, rubber bullets
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu says the Osa handgun will help Border Patrol agents catch criminals and save lives.
In the open country along the Southwest border, law enforcement is often a game of distance and numbers. Smugglers, human traffickers and migrants entering the country illegally count on vast stretches of unguarded border to ensure safe passage.
That leaves Border Patrol agents and county sheriff’s deputies chasing people through open space, often at night, their targets too far for a stun gun, which can reach only about three metres.
On Tuesday, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office said it would become the nation’s first police agency at any level to use the Osa handgun, a Russian-designed four-chamber break-action pistol that uses a laser target pointer and shoots rubber bullets. It’s a weapon they say will lead to more captures and fewer deaths on the border.
“Illegal immigrants don’t generally have guns, but they could be throwing rocks,” said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who demonstrated the weapon’s accuracy by striking a target from five metres away. “I’ve seen those incidents end with someone getting shot, someone getting killed.”
With a less lethal option, Babeu said, the number of deaths will fall.
The rubber bullets from the Osa, named for the Russian word for “wasp,” strike targets with the force of a person swinging a baseball bat or a punch from a professional boxer, said Leao Gitirana, spokesman for the American distributor of the gun, Defenzia. The rounds have blunt edges and are not designed to pierce. “Pain compliance is what we’re looking for,” Gitirana said.
Law enforcement agencies have been searching for the ideal non-lethal weapon for years, and that goal has taken on greater urgency in recent years as fatal police shootings have come under greater scrutiny.
Pinal County’s announcement came the same day a veteran Chicago police officer was charged with firstdegree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. In Minneapolis, protests continue over the fatal police shooting of Jamar Clark, 24.
Despite the goal of reducing deaths, non-lethal weapons are not without controversy. The Los Angeles Times reported last month that Tasers became instruments of excessive force after the Border Patrol issued them to its agents in 2008.
The Osa and its stun-gun ilk are popular in Russia, especially among the rich and in major cities, says a 2013 poll by the Russian Legal Information Agency.
Russia has been wrangling with the safety and legality of rubber-bullet guns for years. In Moscow in 2007, a 29-year-old Azerbaijani pulled an Osa handgun and fired at a group of pedestrians, injuring three people he thought were crossing a street too slowly.
The Osa handguns will cost the department $1,100 each and will be available to all Pinal County deputies. Despite the weapon’s violent purpose, Babeu expects it to save lives. With an increased focus on police use of lethal force, he said, the Osa may help avoid another North Charleston, referring to the fatal shooting of unarmed Walter Scott in the back by Officer Michael Slager as Scott fled a traffic stop.