Re: Colonists and Weapons

Scott Clinton Wrote:

>>There are experimental gauss weapons, they were developed as part of
>>the SDI project.
>
>And there are REAL, practical LASERs in use today that can burn a hole
>through a soldier.  Granted, they are not man-portable on a
battlefield,
>etc., etc... but the fact that they exist in commercial (i.e.
economically
>feasible) applications makes LASERs decades closer than their gauss
>equivalents (at least).

I'm interested to see how this discussion has progressed from my
original 
comments.  I'm sure that this evolution has rendered my argument 
irrelevant 
to the CURRENT line of discussion, but I want to clarify a few points:

In my original argument, I never claimed that military lasers were 
non-viable.  I never claimed that gauss weapons would develop faster
than 
them.  My only observation was that, no matter how advanced the science
of 
lasers gets, whether that means new energy sources, beam types (Visible 
light, microwave, whatever), portability, etc., they will always suffer
the 
setback of relying on their optics in order to be functional as a
weapon.  
That means that even slight misalignments, dirt, any sort of poor 
conditions, will have a far more deleterious effect on it's performance
than 
say, a regular bullet-firing weapon. As a future frontiersman, NOT A 
SOLDIER, where I may spend days or weeks ALONE (No platoon sgt., no 
logistics section), away from my home, let alone from the nearest town,
and 
even more removed from Earth, I want a weapon that can withstand rough 
contitions, be beaten about, is easy to service by myself.  And I want
it to 
be able to drop big predators in their tracks.

Remember, there are vast differences between what is required of a
military 
weapon and what is required of a civilian sporting or utilitarian
weapon.  
If you mortally wound a grizzly, he does not drop his weapon, call for a

medic, and tie up significant portions of a logistic tail getting care. 

Unless you stop him cold, he keeps coming, kills you, and then dies. 
Bloody 
lot of good that does you.

2B^2

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