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US Air Force Develops Phaser

Yeah, saw that on the news as well. Would be nice to have a descent non-leathal solution...and it looks cool
 
I'm going to proclaim that I'm relatively impressed by this, not the PHaSER itself, but the fact that a US military program has created two working prototypes of something for ONLY $900,000. looks like they must have really cut down on the thousand dollar screwdrivers
 
Ok, now the government is going to say that Oakley's are intent to commit Terror.

It might block this laser flare we made .... take them off or we shoot!

$

they should be working on ranged stun guns not truck battery powered laser pointers...

waste of money.

$
 
Heh I look at this and imagine the manual outlining the settings as:
1. Permanent Blind
2. Temporary Blind
3. Laser Floyd! :rolleyes:

For what it does, it's big and expensive, however if refined it might do well in the growing 'less-than-leathal' weapons market for police and security forces. I guess only time will tell if this is $900,000 well spent.
 
Not to appear bloody thirsty, but 'safe' weaponary for the military is surely a complete waste of time and money? - if we were that civilised, we could decide the outcome of wars by tournaments or an intense game of chess.

The police could certainly use better 'safe' weapons.

However the military needs first strike advantage - i.e. take the target out from your terminal a 1000 miles away using a remote droid - not situations where GI Joe's getting shot at for real, since his light/stun gun's run out of Duracells!
 
Very Uncool!

A lot of trite responses to this sick news. Chimps. Just wait 15 years when they're mounted on CCTV cameras and used to control people by threat. Or at the next G8 or WTO meeting where the demonstrators are zapped en masse under some phony emergency "anti-terror" laws. Non lethal weapons are more open to abuse than lethal ones. If you're at a demo and you're hit by a truncheon, there is no way you will ever be able to bring charges against the cop because it's one incident in a thousand when it all kicks off but there is no way a cop can shoot you without some kind of media/legal interest. Think it through.
 
Henri Gaudier said:
A lot of trite responses to this sick news. Chimps. Just wait 15 years when they're mounted on CCTV cameras and used to control people by threat. Or at the next G8 or WTO meeting where the demonstrators are zapped en masse under some phony emergency "anti-terror" laws. Non lethal weapons are more open to abuse than lethal ones. If you're at a demo and you're hit by a truncheon, there is no way you will ever be able to bring charges against the cop because it's one incident in a thousand when it all kicks off but there is no way a cop can shoot you without some kind of media/legal interest. Think it through.
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I am not really sure how to respond to this...

There is the sacarstic, yeah I agree it would be better to start shooting people when these fascist anti-american rallies go over the top, turn violent and innocent police officers get injured, but even criminals deserve a fair trial.

There is the bitterly mocking, u u u [accompanied by gratuitous monkey scratching]

There is the serious, you would rather be maimed or killed rather than temporarily stunned?

Like all non lethal, non maiming weapons it has drawbacks and weaknesses. There are a number of uses for this besides crowd control at riots. Its a great tool in hostage situations or in standoffs.
 
MongoTheGeek said:
Like all non lethal, non maiming weapons it has drawbacks and weaknesses. There are a number of uses for this besides crowd control at riots. Its a great tool in hostage situations or in standoffs.
Click to expand...
Hells yes, stun them all first and ask questions later.

To the people who think that the sun glasses would block it, come on. They'd just make the laser light more intensive. And think of situations where you can't just go around wearing sunglasses. Indoors or when its dark.

So basically you can physically see the people you want to stun, so you can make your own mind up as to how powerful the beam needs to be.

Oh and if you're worried about being stricken blind (for a little while) at your political rallies, just don't go. You have the wonderful freedom of not being in a place. Everybody knows they don't do anything anyway, if you want to get something done get some money and hire some lobbyists.
 
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