Run away, the ray-gun is coming: we test US army's new secret weapon

// added October 11, 2008 // 3 comments //
Image...
uppityprogressive

more from News and Politics:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-482560/Run-away-ray-gu...

This machine has the ability to inflict limitless, unbearable pain. What makes it OK, says Raytheon, is that the pain stops as soon as you are out of the beam or the machine is turned off.

But my right finger was tingling hours later - was that psychosomatic?

So what is the problem? All right, it hurts, but then so do tear gas and water cannon and they have been used by the world's police and military for decades.

Am I being squeamish?

One thing is certain: not just the Silent Guardian, but weapons such as the Taser, the electric stun-gun, are being rolled out by Britain's police forces as the new way of controlling people by using pain.

And, as the Raytheon chaps all insist, you always have the option to get out of the way (just as you have the option to comply with the police officer's demands and not get Tasered).

But there is a problem: mission creep. This is the Americanism which describes what happens when, over time, powers or techniques are used to ends not stated or even imagined when they were devised ...
  1. groups:
    News and Politics,   Politics,   WTF
  2. tags:
    News and Politics,  Politics,  WTF,  Police,  3 more

3 comments // Run away, the ray-gun is coming: we test US army's new secret weapon

  • angryhands
    • 0
      angryhands  

    • these are being 'advertized' as safe alternatives to lead bullets. then they are used as if they are harmless-that's the danger. they can harm. if a gun was used to shoot me there would be more time spent training officers, and weeding out the bad ones. i heard many states are cutting down on hiring war veterans to be police officers without having them attend a police acadamy,as they
      'can handle a gun!" my grandfathers often carried their war pistol in preferance to a department issued.38.

    • 1 year ago
  • Dmitri_Molotov
    • 0
      Dmitri_Molotov  

    • Heh, it ain't that hard to make you're own stun weapons. Try a bow and arrow with the arrowhead replaced by a charged capacitor from a camera.

    • 1 year ago
  • phillyharper
    • 0
      phillyharper  

    • I love how The Daily Mail managed to test the latest "secret" weapon, but none the less I think they, for once, raise some interesting points.

      The article is from September 2007 but in these trigger happy taser days I think the article has become a little more relevant. Should anyone have the power to have such a machine?

    • 1 year ago
most popular
videos on current tv

current videos