# Border agents now directed to throw rocks and hide?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-agents-now-directed-to-throw-rocks-and-hide/627593>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 8, 2012, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-agents-now-directed-to-throw-rocks-and-hide/627593 "2012-07-08T10:11:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-agents-now-directed-to-throw-rocks-and-hide/627593/1 "2012-07-08T10:11:41Z")

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This is making the rounds among people I know. It seems too precious to be true, but I’m condemned by my nature to investigate things before blurting out a judgement.

> [@](#):
>
> In another nauseating series of “Virtual Learning Center” brainwashing courses that Border Patrol agents are forced to sit behind a computer for hours and endure, we are now taught in an “Active Shooter” course that if we encounter a shooter in a public place we are to “run away” and “hide”. If we are cornered by such a shooter we are to (only as a last resort) become “aggressive” and “throw things” at him or her. We are then advised to “call law enforcement” and wait for their arrival (presumably, while more innocent victims are slaughtered). Shooting incidents cited in the course are Columbine, the Giffords shooting and the Virginia Tech shooting.

[http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/new-program-teaches-border-agents-to-flee-and-hide-when-confronted/](http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/new-program-teaches-border-agents-to-flee-and-hide-when-confronted/)

I’m not naive enough to take seriously an article whose lead-in line is “It’s an Obama world”, but I guess what I’m asking is whether this information is true, but out of context, or just cut from whole cloth.

For example, I could see border agents being told “If you’re in uniform and armed and not on duty, you’re not the police, so call the police and act like everyone else.”

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**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-agents-now-directed-to-throw-rocks-and-hide/627593/2 "2012-07-08T10:15:54Z")

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Duh, I should have searched on “active searcher course” border patrol. Looks like it’s pretty much what I thought, a primer for reacting to workplace violence, not a strategy for dealing with gun-toting illegals shimmying over the border fence.

> [@](#):
>
> The FEMA-administered computer course, entitled “IS-907- Active Shooter: What You Can Do,” is a 45-minute tutorial that provides guidance to all employees on how to recognize indicators of possible workplace violence and what to do should their office be invaded by gunmen and focuses around three main options; either evacuate, hide out, or in dire circumstances, take action.
> 
> Read more: [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/29/border-patrol-union-claims-homeland-security-safety-course-promotes/#ixzz201anS2gy](http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/29/border-patrol-union-claims-homeland-security-safety-course-promotes/#ixzz201anS2gy)

Thank you all for your patience in watching me ask a question and answer it myself.