NonlethalWeapons
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Taser International's six-shot Shockwave demonstration
If you're looking to incapacitate with electricity, Taser International is your go-to source. And while single-shot (or even triple shot) weapons have their place, what do you do when faced with a whole crowd of no-goodniks? For instance, take that Travis County, Texas constable who zapped a 72 year old woman this spring (she dared him, remember). What if he was confronted by a whole van full of Ragin' Grannies? That, dear readers, is what Shockwave is for. Each module holds six Tazers seated in a twenty-degree arc, and multiple units can either be stacked horizontally or daisy chained for simultaneous deployment. The unit is activated by a push-button control box that allows the operator to stand up to 100 meters away, and the maximum range is 25 feet. Never before has electrocution been this easy. Video after the break.[Via Defense Tech]
Raytheon sells its first 'pain ray,' and the less lethal arms race begins
As you are no doubt aware, one of the perks of being in the corporate security field is that you get to try out things that would come across as, well, unseemly if put in the hands of the government. While there's been some controversy over the possible use of Raytheon's 10,000 pound "portable" Silent Guardian by the military, it appears that at least one private customer has no such qualms. We're not sure exactly who placed the order -- news of an "Impending Direct Commercial Sale" was just one bullet point of many at Raytheon's recent presentation at a NATO workshop on anti-pirate technologies. The company itself is being mum on the subject, saying that it would be "premature" to name names at the present time, but rest assured -- this is only the beginning. As soon as these things are small enough to fit in your briefcase or glove compartment, every nut in your neighborhood will want one. In the mean time, looks like you're stuck with the Taser. [Warning: PDF read link][Via Wired]
Laser Energetics' new light weapon puts you on the highway to the Dazer Zone
Are you looking to torment a neighbor / random passerby without the messy after-effects of traditional "just plain lethal" weapons? Perhaps you work for a law enforcement agency and you'd like to justify a budget increase by pouring cash into something vaguely futuristic. Or maybe you're a big city mayor with a "tough on crime" stance who'd rather not put any more money in social services. If so, we've found something both painful and cute sounding to add to your shopping list: Laser Energetics ("the total laser technology solutions company!") has just unveiled its new Dazer Laser less-than-lethal light fighting technology line. These bad boys operate at a range of up to 2400 meters (depending on the model), and work by emitting a green laser beam that fans out into a 1 x 8-foot "Dazer Zone." When focused on a person's eyes, his or her vision is temporarily impaired, their balance is effected, and they become overwhelmed by nausea. At the very least, it's probably better than being microwaved, right?[Via Test Freaks]
Raytheon developing compact, inexpensive human microwaves
As you know, if you like your weapons "less than lethal" (but much more than comfortable) the U.S. military is your go-to guy. So great is its love for tormenting folks on future battlefields that the Pentagon has spent a small fortune on devices meant to incapacitate through the use of sound, electricity, and microwaves -- including the Silent Guardian that Raytheon trotted out a while back. According to Wired, the company has recently been awarded a couple interesting contracts relating to their human microwave, including one for a "solid state source for use in non-lethal weapons," and another for gallium nitride development. Details are murky, but GaN -- a semiconductor for missile defense radars -- apparently "looks very promising for high-power microwave amplification," allowing the company to greatly reduce the size and cost of the device. The good news? Defense technology that once took up a whole shipping container and cost several million dollars might be getting much smaller, and cheaper, in the future. The bad news? It really really really hurts.
Long-range stun guns en route
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!)
