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By
Allen Gibson, HomelandDefenseStocks.com
Amid
increasing debate about just how ‘non-lethal’ they really are, the race
continues to develop the next generation of non-lethal stun weapons and
invent longer range techniques to incapacitate without killing.
Of
course, weapons not designed to kill are not a new invention. Think Robin
Hood’s quarterstaff! But the weapons in development these days are the
stuff of science fiction becoming science fact.
According to research by The
Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project in
England, the demand for these technologies is being fueled by several
things, among them a growing dislike among civilians of the brutal realities
of war, as shown to them on their television sets and the internet. But
militaries, too, want to be able to control crowds and work in densely
populated urban areas without having to use lethal force. As the Iraq
situation clearly illustrates, it is often hard to separate the opponent
from the populace, and firing into crowds is both random and ineffective,
tends to be poorly received back home, and also generates hostility from the
Iraqi populace. Or the Palestinian populace, or any other populace, as the
case may be!
The
range of technologies that have been conceived or tested is astounding
Energy Weapons – is
the Phaser far behind?
Laser
beams are in active development, initially to stop vehicles and electronics.
But the military is working on various energy weapons, with the hope that
they can one day be adjusted on-the-fly from lethal to non-lethal settings.
‘Conducted’
energy weapons use electrical energy to affect the signaling mechanisms used
by the human body to communicate. The electrical energy simply jams the
body’s communication system.
TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq: "TASR"), which has been a stock market darling for the
past year, is a very successful non-lethal technology, particularly in
domestic law enforcement circles.
The
cops love it.
According
to information on the company’s website, Tasers have dramatically lowered
both officer injuries and suspect fatalities. Unlike a regular bullet, which
requires you to hit a vital part of the body to instantly stop someone, the
Taser will disable most perpetrators no matter where on the body the impact
takes place. This is an obvious advantage for the user.
Despite
a number of people who’ve been “taser’d’ later dying in custody, the
company CEO in a recent press release responded that
“In every single case the medical examiner has attributed the direct cause
of death to causes other than the TASER device.”
In most cases, it seems, those who died had nervous systems that were
already under intense strain – often from cocaine or crack – and
suffered heart attacks. What the media and Amnesty International –
who’ve called for a ban on the weapons - seem to overlook, however, is
that more people would surely have died if they’d been shot with
regular bullets. In
fact, in law enforcement circles, the correct terminology is
“less-lethal,” to make the distinction that some people still might die.
After all, a piece of 2 X 4 isn’t considered a ‘lethal weapon’ until
somebody bashes your head in with it.
At the
DARPATech 2004 Symposium, the Director of DARPA’s Precision Urban Combat
System program wanted to know: “Is
it possible to develop free flying projectile tasers to electrically subdue
an adversary? How small can we make these tasers?”
How
about the size of a bullet?
“Shockrounds” – a patent-pending technology being developed by MDM Group (OTCPK: MDDM), consists of rubber bullets that carry a piezo-electric charge. Fired from a regular gun, and with an expected useful range of up to 300 feet, the bullets would discharge their electrical jolt on impact. If they work as advertised, they could revolutionize the industry in the middle term.
Mission Research Corporation of Santa Barbers, who were just bought out by Alliant Techsystems, is working on a ‘pulsed energy projectile’ (PEP) that would create a flash-bang stun grenade effect by superheating the sweat on a target so rapidly that it literally explodes. The DOD is investing $3.2 million in research on PEPs.
In
January, the US Air Force Research Laboratory
announced a $9 million ‘fast-track’ research partnership with Ionatron
Inc. (OTCBB: IOTN) to
develop a demonstration unit for ‘directed energy technology’ (can you
say ‘ray gun’?) as a NLW to stop vehicles or degrade electronics, and to
potentially be used on people. The first unit is expected within ten months.
The
issue remains how to adjust the intensity of these weapons to make them
non-lethal. It’s the difference between ‘Set phasers on stun’ or
‘Set phasers to kill.’
Allen
R. Gibson
Allen
R. Gibson has over twenty-five years of experience in media and corporate
communications. He has been a reporter, television producer, and
marketing communications consultant for public companies in both the US and
Canada.
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