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China Buying US Directed Sound 'Weapon'
holy_calamity writes "The directed sound weapon made by US company ATC is being exported to the Chinese police, despite the public law banning sales of weapons to China. Turns out that such 'non-lethal' technologies are not covered by this law — an omission that may become more widely known if they are used to quell high-profile protests during the Olympics."
the Chinese have stolen Country and Western!
which is totally what she said
While stocks last.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I don't know if it's such a bad thing to provide China with safe crowd control devices. If China wants some form of crowd control they will use whatever they have, including deadly force (such as back in Tienanmen Square).
Giving them something safe to use is probably a good idea and could save peoples' lives.
I think the counterargument would be something to the effect that the US shouldn't help a government such as China's to maintain control over its people. It's a difficult moral dilemma to be sure. However, China is not Burma and by and large the population is content with their government.
Once they finished slaughtering the objectors it sure got quiet over there for a while, didn't it?
and completely ignore the US occupation of Iraq
You're right, I wonder what became of that whole thing? I haven't seen that come up in the media lately... oh wait.
The twitter monologues. Click on my homepage and be amazed.
I think anything used with intent to harm (and stunning would be "harm") is defined as a weapon under most U.S. laws. See Ms. Green in the library with the candlestick for more details.
Not to start a slashwar, but our government has redefined many standard terms in the past 8 years, so a weapon may be classified as anything more destructive than the Death Star. Everything else is called "French Toast" and is clearly non-threatening in the greater scheme of things.
I'd say if it has the ability to disable a person (even temporarily) or cause significant/severe discomfort at the press of a button, it could be a weapon. Tasers, rubber bullets, and tear gas don't kill (many) people either.
That's not to say it can't be used for legitimate purposes; there are just many people who just don't trust China. Honestly, there are a lot of countries who might not be trusted with such equipment. The US is not necessarily excluded from that list, but it's mostly determined by whether you approve or disapprove of the policies of the people behind the trigger.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Did anyone else read the headline as China is buying Sound Weapons directed at the US? I felt bad for people living in California for a moment.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Sure, because their work with laser technologies now have given the world weapons to use against us.
Considering their arms exporting practices, I'd rather not give them more money, thanks.
We have no duty to sacrifice for others, and our own prosperity should be our first consideration.If humans are to survive as a species, we'd better start thinking of others...
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
If it's not a weapon, so that these laws do not apply... then I want one!
But really, this Chinese thing looks like a mess waiting to happen. More reason to hate / distrust the United States government... for both Americans and Chinese.
The images of pretty affluent Chinese living in modern-looking cities we've come to enjoy in the Western media are not exactly indicative of what actually goes on over there. It's a big country with a billion people.
In any case, it's illegal to express negative feelings about the glorious Communist Party or its leaders, so I'm not sure who you've been talking to over there. Just about every Chinese I've ever met here in the US love their country, but they've rarely had anything but negative things to say about their government, regardless of the era they happened to leave.
The twitter monologues. Click on my homepage and be amazed.
the vast majority of Chinese are very happy with their government at the moment
On the other hand, it was recently reported that there were over 85,000 protests in China last year, some of them violent. That is a staggering number. I suspect these sound machines will see a lot of action.
Leave the gun, take the cannolis.
The problem is, it takes a lot more justification to fire a bullet than it does to use one of these.
One of these and 2 or 3 people can effectively fight a crowd of thousands. In fact there is no reason for any government NOT to use these to quell their population and keep them goose stepping in line... except for morals.
Furthermore, if a group or government is willing to use a cheap bullet in a situation they would be highly unlikely to purchase, train crews, and deploy these expensive non-lethal weapons.
While these weapons definitely have their uses, they can also easily be abused. Perhaps even more easily than lethal weapons, since there is supposedly no lasting damage done. (Unlike rubber or plastic bullets which cause moderate too severe damage, can be deadly and are inaccurate.) I expect China to get a lot of use out of their purchase from now on.
And on a final note, a lot of these weapons CAN be adjust to cause permanent damage. A lot of the R&D for these weapons was to design a targeting system to keep them from doing that. Change some settings and depending on the weapon large portions of a targeted crowd may never hear again or may never see again.
We've been selling them directed sound weapons ever since we've been exporting Britney Spears CDs...
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
The "pain ray" the US has developed is pretty well suited for a totalitarian government as well. It leaves no marks, so you could also just round up anyone at a protest and subject them to microwave beams that activate the pain nerves in the skin just enough to be able to cause agonizing pain without leaving any marks . You have the double bonus of driving your victims insane from the pain without any ugly wounds to photograph and get people upset. However, China is not Burma and by and large the population is content with their government. China has a very effective ability to stifle dissent -- Tiananmen square is an excellent example. How are you going to know if anyone is unhappy if everyone is too scared to say anything? When you surf the internet in China they love to have little animated policemen popping up on your screen to remind you that you are being watched. People are scared enough there already of doing the wrong thing -- imagine what would happen if deaf people started showing up as not-so-subtle reminders of what happens to people who complain?
Imagine the scenario of one man in a truck with a sound weapon shutting down a whole protest without any ugly pictures to shock anyone into action, with no effective recourse by the protesters. This kind of thing is the way that your typical 'nightmare dystopian science fiction movie' would become reality. Once the people are unable to complain or protest, how nice would the government have to be?
And yes, if you got that, you're also going to hell, chummer.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
Your incredulous attitude is troubling.
The sound weapon being sold may be non-lethal, but who is to say they won't RE the device and make lethal sound weapons. Sound can kill. If you stand next to a speaker when 160db of sound comes out of it, you'll be dead. NASA uses sound to test the tiles on the shuttle, anyone caught inside that tester would be killed instantly when the sound came on.
"We had two world wars!!!"
NOTE: I do not support the selling of weapons to anyone and I am making no moral judgments with the below.
World War 1 - The upper-class of Europe gets a bit excitable and millions of people die, although in the long run (after WW2) it effectively removed the European upper-class from power which is a good thing. It had nothing to do with economics whatsoever.
World War 2 - Effectively two wars:
1) Europe - an extension of WW1. Basically, caused by different power bases/ideals vying for the power vacuum left by the removal of the upper-class in Germany, Russia, Austria and a weakening of it elsewhere.
2) The Pacific - Japan, the only non-white skinned empire and great power had limited resources, i.e. steel and oil. The other (white skinned) powers (British Empire, US, Dutch & French) refused to supply the Japanese. This left them two options:
i) Give up on their imperial and economic ambitions.
or
ii) Take it from someone
Their hands were forced into the second option and the entire reason for Pearl Harbor was to knock out the US long enough so they could grab the oil in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) and, hopefully, become strong enough before the US had a chance to re-arm. If the US had not had a colony^M^M^M^M^M^Mterritory called The Philippines, Pearl Harbor would not have been necessary at all.
The entire Pacific war was forced by the other powers refusing to sell the means to make an economy work (and make war), oil & steel, to the Japanese.
I am not justifying any of the actions of any of the governments at the time, just stating happened.
Then by all means close that loophole up for national security.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
What the hell is Slashdot coming to when a post including "jk", ";)", "rofl", and "P.S. ... you're dumb" gets modded up? Grammar Nazis, you guys are slacking off!
The World's Worst Webcomic!
wtf are you talking about?? There's a huge difference between the military and the police in the US. For starters, I never even see the fucking military except on TV. Secondly, the military is not allowed to engage civilians unless they are the National Guard and they are ordered by the Governor of the state to do so which is extremely rare. The military also don't give a flying fuck whether you're speeding down the highway, ripping off the grocery store, or having sex with animals.
Finally, the reason the sale is allowed is because it's a non-lethal weapon as explained in the OP. It's probably an oversight but not anywhere near as shocking as you make it out to be.
Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
Give them enough time for the apoplectic fit to wear off...
I wonder what it'd be like to load Rick Astley on one...
Or what the RIAA will do...
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.