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).

Out of curiousity, how far away will these commercial lasers burn
through a
person?  The gauss weapon projectile does not suffer from diffraction or
dispersion, so if the weapon can fire a 7.62mm slug at the same mv as a
7.62mm
rifle, we can confidently say the gauss weapon will be lethal at the
same
ranges.  Of course, the gauss weapons I have learned about were much
closer to