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New Rifle Tech Offers Variable Muzzle Speed
Ponca City, We love you writes "A gun that fires variable-speed bullets that can be set to kill, wound, or just inflict a bruise is being built by a Lund and Company Invention, a toy design studio that makes toy rockets powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolyzing water. The company is being funded by the US Army to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead. The new weapon, called the Variable Velocity Weapon System or VWS, lets the soldier use the same rifle for crowd control and combat, by altering the muzzle velocity. It could be loaded with 'rubber bullets' designed only to deliver blunt impacts on a person, full-speed lethal rounds, or projectiles somewhere between the two. Bruce Lund, the company's CEO, says the gun works by mixing a liquid or gaseous fuel with air in a combustion chamber behind the bullet. This determines the explosive capability of the propellant and consequently the velocity of the bullet. 'Projectile velocity varies from non-lethal at 10 meters, to lethal at 100 meters or more, as desired,' says Lund. The existing VWS design is a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) rifle weapon, but Lund says the technology can be scaled to any size, 'handgun to Howitzer.'"
So you just copy and pasted something out of startrek eh?
You mad
It would be useless for trap shooting. You need higher velocities so you don't have to lead the clay as much, and so you break it when you hit it.
You mad
Remember the bean bag to the head that killed the girl celebrating the Red Sox victory?
That wasn't a beanbag. It was something like a compressed pepper bullet. It's less than lethal when it hits something a hard, a little less so when it enters through the eye socket and splatters over the back of the skull.
Sort of like, say, the bullets fired from the gun this article talks about.
Ever wonder why you have to wear a face mask when playing paintball?
A nonlethal shot to the gut can become a lethal shot to the eye.
That gun is nothing. Take a look at this clip of Raytheon's latest toy. It's a pain-ray that when used properly will leave no permanent damage or marks of any kind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1w4g2vr7B4
I wish I could find the entire 60 Minutes segment on this technology. What is incredibly disturbing is the angle 60 Minutes chooses to take; they do not address EVEN BRIEFLY the controversial implications of the existence of a weapon like this: the potential for physical harm (trampling in crowds), the possibility of it's use as a "perfect" torture device, philosophical questions about authority, etc.
Instead they immediately side with the proponents of this technology and frame the Pain Ray as the victim of a lot of governmental bureaucracy: "the soldiers/police are dying every day while this tool sits behind a lot of red tape".
Multiple Round, Simultaneous Impact is a feature that has been implemented on a number of artillery systems in recent years. The US armys Crusader (cancelled) project was one I remember, and there was a German one, and the Swedish Archer. Big howitzers have used different powder charges for high angle indirect fire for a long time. So do mortars.
I look forward to seeing this weapon system on upcoming episodes of Future Weapons (Discovery and Military channel)
A .22 can kill. Equally, people have been known to survive being hit by a .50. There are too many variables in the kill/injure equation and this is certainly not something you'd be able to control with a dial.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
What a bunch of BS. Here in Oregon, the cops outright murdered a number people by using excessive force. One was just peeing on the sidewalk and ran away. Officers chased him, caught him, and beat him so severely that it killed him. Several others were mildly psychotic and instead of just tackling them or using a taser, they shot them dead.
A few years ago a person known to the police to be unarmed was fired at by 21 rounds of bullets as he ran away. Amazingly none of the bullets hit him. And if you are in a car and try to get away, the officers will later say that they were afraid that they were going to be hit by the car and killed, so they sprayed 50 rounds of bullets into the car as self defense.
This kind of stuff goes on all over the US. Its not just local to here.