Long-range stun guns en route
By Ryan Block 
posted Sep 5th 2006 3:41AM
posted Sep 5th 2006 3:41AM
We got a bit of a jolt out of the idea of a new longer range stun gun, as apparently inventors are hard at work on a 40-kilovolt shocker capable of reducing a subject as far off off as 450 feet to a mass of quivering child-like state. Unlike tethered Tasers that stick someone close up with wires, this new type of debilitating nonlethal weapon fires off a small dart that detonates piezeoelectric materials on impact, triggering a massive electric reaction, and thusly taking down -- but not out -- the target. It's really no mystery to us that a device like that's going to build a lot of buzz. (Sorry, had to!)
Non-lethal? I WANT ONE!!!!
Good. Equip every police officer with one of these.
And what if it the bullet contacts not skin, but the clothes? Will this have an effect?
Somehow these tasers sound a lot like those SciFi weapons in the movies...:-)
Imagine using them as crowd control...a lot of people. close together, touching, could be reduced to a twitching heap of man-meat with only a few shots...
mmmmhhhhh...I hope these will come over to Germany sometime...I'l love to see our police running around town with these and actually daring to use them...
I guess 40KV should be enough to get through most types of clothing...
cops only use stun guns in situation where the perp is a low treat but a treat none the less. if a perp has a gun
or knife the cup will use deadly force.
Wow this is the same thing as the "electric rifle" of Captain Nemo in the SF novel "20000 Leagues Under the Sea" from Jules Verne (1869)!
"new type of debilitating nonlethal weapon" as if the original ones were meant to be lethal? Doh!
There is also one in development that does not use wires OR projectiles, but fires invisible bolts through mid air. Believe it. Better yet, google it.
I love watching the cop chase videos on tv when they tase
someone. It's like watching a really bad break dancer LOL.
What are the chances of a 40Kv projectile igniting a person's clothes? What if they're wet? What if they're wearing metal buttons on their wet denim coat?
The first person to be barbecued by long-distance taser will certainly make the news. Perhaps they should have Dell or Sony make the projectiles.
intresting note, on a wiki discussion page I found this, seems it won't do any good.:
"Stun guns voltage can range from 50kV up to 750kV for some models, and anything under 200kV is mostly considered "irritating" by law enforcers."
And when gangs get a hold of these to rob someone? That guy won't even get a chance to run
"And when gangs get a hold of these to rob someone? That guy won't even get a chance to run" You'd rather be shot and killed when they steal your stuff?
woah! what a shocker!
: D
Sounds like the 'sticky shockers' that are a key weapon in the Splinter Cell series...
I am recalling the Tesla soldier in Red Alert....
Go ahead, make my day. When they get the Larry Niven model that is.
And you laughed at my tinfoil hat! Now all i need is a good tinfoil tailor!
even a non-lethal beanbag can be lethal if it hits a person in the eye, temple or throat. There's no guarantee that it will be non-lethal, they should call them 'mostly non-lethal'.
Yes, the comment by PEZ is indeed correct.
Air does not conduct electricity normally, or when it occurs at very high voltage the lightning is deviated towards the nearest conductor (and it could be the cop's feet! :-D).
But prototypes of effective lightning gun has been made, using a primary ultraviolet laser which ionizes air along its path, then the gun fires an enormous electric discharge and the lightning goes straight forward because it follows the ionized rectilinear line.
Uh... bad idea. Isn't one feature of Tasers the ability for the officer to shut it off if anything bad happens (like the perp getting a heart attack mid shock)? I can see a number of fatalities happening. Plus, since the charge is activated via explosions, it's hard to design the projectiles' control mechanism (if they exist) surviving that, and the impact too.
Sounds like a bad idea. Anything that shots a projectile with enough force to travel 450 feet is shooting a projectile with enough force to kill someone. At that distance, the chance of shooting the person in the throat or eye or some other vulnerable area is too great. It becomes a matter of they may not die - is that any better than shooting them with a gun.
Stun guns are useful as is the taser because it provides the user with options and control with very little to almost no risk of killing the person.