JAMESTOWN, PA—Upon learning that their products had been utilized by U.S. border patrol agents on migrants attempting to enter the country, tear gas manufacturers were reportedly worried Monday about their association with everything that tear gas is used for. “It’s troubling to turn on the news and see that our products were involved in such a heinous, violent situation where they were clearly used exactly as intended,” said Combined Systems CEO Donald Smith, echoing the concerns of other major tear gas manufacturers about seeing their products being linked to spraying protesters, refugees, and other unarmed people with tear gas. “When the media shows people with chemical burns in their eyes or choking on tear gas to the point of vomiting, it doesn’t make the average person view tear gas in a favorable light. Tear gas has always been intended for soldiers, law enforcement, and other authorities to control other, less powerful people by causing them severe pain, so any association with it being used according to its designed purpose really doesn’t look good for us. We just want to stress that our intended use for tear gas, whether it’s to disperse peaceful activists or to assault crowds of migrants, could not be any closer to what these products were actually used for.” The nation’s tear gas manufacturers added that critics of their products consistently failed to appreciate the care that they took to ensure that tear gas was not supposed to be lethal.

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