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Saturday's BB gun attack against a paparazzi trying to get a photo of Britney Spears at a Malibu baby shower has touched off an interesting debate among residents of The 'Bu. What degree of celebrity retaliation against people trying to take their picture is acceptable? Is it OK to shoot a paparazzi? If yes, what's the maximum caliber of the firearm? If no, OMG, did you see how huge Britney is? Is it a boy or a girl? The LAT dives headlong into the controversy:

"I don't blame the actors for taking a swing at these guys every once in a while," said Mickey Borofsky, 70, as he sipped coffee outside the Malibu Kitchen, a local celebrity haunt. But, he said, "I don't know if it's acceptable to take a shot at them." [...]

"It's all part of the job, isn't it?" asked Hannah McMahon, 19, who was visiting Malibu with friend Aimee Parnell, also 19, from Liverpool, England. It would be different if someone had used a real gun, they said, but a pellet gun didn't seem that bad. Parnell said she has been shot with a pellet gun and it didn't seem too terrible.

It seems that anti-paparazzi violence is a complicated gray area. Take a swing, sure, but don't shoot them. But if they're asking for it and you really, really need to shoot them, don't use real guns, OK, y'all?

We long for a simpler time, when Spears and her people attacked with nothing more dangerous than a cup of soda, a milkshake, or an SUV.

UPDATE: Brad Diaz, the pellet-gunned shutterbug, is suing Spears. He could've lost an eye! This isn't funny!