I read a story on CBC News about an American border guard firing at a few people who assaulted him by trying to punch him out.

Here’s the story:

A U.S. border guard fired shots Monday at three people trying to enter a sleepy town on the Quebec-Vermont border where the library famously lies partly in Canada and partly in the United States.

The U.S. Border Patrol said one of its agents stopped three people — two men and a woman — trying to cross the border where Rock Island, Que., blends into Derby Line, Vt.

When the agent tried to question them, they refused to answer and then attacked him, punching him. The agent then pulled his gun and fired twice while they fled, the border patrol said.

Police later captured a man and a woman — one in Canada, the other in the United States. One man remained at large, possibly wounded, the CBC’s Dan Halton reported.

U.S. authorities questioned the two suspects while police on both sides of the border continued to hunt for the second man.

The border patrol would not provide the suspects’ nationalities.

I often read the comments on CBC News stories, and found some side splitting humour from some readers.

• lochsloy said: I am not sure we could take away their weapons James – you know the “right to bear arms” is apparently in their constitution and since the president of the US is “leader of the free world” we probably need to check with him first. Besides now that we are getting all of Saddam’s uranium Canada now could be accused of having “weapons of mass destruction” (along with some oil that the Americans might want) and we all know what could happen next – Operation Canadian Freedom!
• Mister E said: I would like to thank the Americans for showing a little restraint and not ordering a cross border airstrike on the local population.
• Mynamehere said: The shooting was justified – they had not properly declared the fruit they had with them.
• Critical_thinker said: Perhaps this border guard should spend a little more time at the shooting range.
• HemiRT said: Lucky they weren’t Tasered, or they might have a bout of excited delirium.
• MaynardStevens said: to lochsloy: you got one thing wrong, it would be Operation Canadian Bacon!