A couple of key points:

 

1. Those Blackhawks are no one's "worst nightmare". They're just armored to withstand small arms fire that comes at them from the Mexican side--something that standard Border Patrol choppers are not. They don't pose any threat to the cartels.

 

2. Even if they were armed, that gunfire is coming from the Mexican side. As in, the, "If you shoot at us, you're committing an act of war," side. Cue the, "Maybe we should go to war with Mexico," crowd. No, we shouldn't. Stop being dumb. Sending armed Blackhawks up along the Texas border would accomplish nothing except burning extra fuel to compensate for the weight of those weapons and really ticking the Mexican government off.

 

So, basically, nothing to see here. It's not even a scare tactic. It's just something designed to put an extra layer of armor between Border Patrol pilots and small arms fire from the Mexican side.

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