Re: Non Violent Weapons

On Mon, 9 Mar 1998 20:32:15 -0600 jfoster@kansas.net (Jim 'Jiji' Foster)
writes:
>At 22:40 3/8/98, Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:
>>On Sun, 8 Mar 1998, Thomas Barclay wrote:
>
>>Well, for starters, "non-lethal" is just the PR name. In actuality, 
>they
>
>To quote from a Neemis Enterprises ad (Phoenix Command Special Weapons
>Supplement):
>
>"Do people really care enough about student demonstrators to put a 
>thin
>plastic coating over a 13 gram steel core? People do."
>
>>I have some rubber shells for 12g shotgun -- upon trying these out, 
>they
>>went straight through a 1" pine plank (at 5 yards, but still).
>
>Furthermore, something that will bruise when it hits the body will 
>*kill*
>when it strikes the brain. That darn skull just isn't flexible 
>enough...
>
>Possible cyberpunk upgrade: The Brain Case. Surrounds the skull with a
>relatively soft covering over a gel. Impacts in one place cause the 
>outer
>'skull' to simply bulge somewhere else, reducing shock damage. Looks 
>weird
>as all get out, but the average 'punk would find that a selling point.
>
>>Civilians suffocating in their own vomit is bad press.
>
>Ah, but if you already control the press.....
>
>>The problems are heightened by active mobs trampling the 
>incapacitated
>>guys -- for an ideal riot control weapon, you'd want something that 
>hurts
>>but doesn't damage (sting a little and let 'em limp home on their own
>>feet).
>
>I always thought that a modern electro-pneumatic paintgun, loaded with 
>soft
>rubber balls and chrono'd at 350 fps would hurt like hell, but 
>(barring a
>shot in the eye) do little permanent damage to the average adult. I'm
>wondering why no one has proposed this as an anti-riot solution. Lord 
>knows
>there have been enough juvenile delinquents who have experimented with 
>the
>idea....
>
>Some time in the last six months, I read a SF short story about a war 
>in
>which the US and Soviets were fighting using non-lethal weapons, due 
>to
>various treaties. They used gasses, semi-toxic poison tranq guns, etc. 
>The
>upshot of the story was, that in using non-lethal methodologies they 
>were,
>over time, causing more lasting trauma and psychological damage than a
>straight-up shooting war.
>
>Don't ask me where I read this; I've been burning through the 
>anthologies
>at the rate of about 2-3/month lately.

    I believe I ran across references in several "US News & World
Report"
(a weekly news magazine) think pieces when they were talking about new
directions for the military (Primarily the US military.) It keeps coming
up when you talk about the military, political, or industrial directions
in the post cold war world. If you are sensitive to the issue and look
at
sources that speak in more than cliches, it keeps on cropping up.  As
matter of fact these are the reasons why nobody actually implements the
idea!!!!!!!


Tom Hughes

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