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New Rifle Tech Offers Variable Muzzle Speed

Posted by kdawson on from the set-phasers-to-stun dept.

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.'"

2 of 443 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh, good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I don't think the VAST majority of officers are any more likely to pull their gun just because it has some half-assed stun setting

    No, what is more likely is that the majority of officers will use it for fun, just to watch some hippie or old woman or other non-conforming citizen suffer. I've seen enough cops get off on violence and have had many friends become unfortunate victims of police abuse to know that they cannot be trusted with weapons. Of any kind.

  2. Re:Oh, good. by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 0, Troll

    You forget the basis of human nature. I am 100% completely and utterly opposed to guns ... in another guy's hand, not in my own.

    However since more people have guns and they might point them at me (for example if I try to take their property without their consent, you know, p2p), I am opposed to guns (I couldn't be bothered to keep one clean and functional anyway). Since I don't have much, and nobody ever steals from me, I think stealing should be legalized. I want that 3g iphone dammit.

    And I am 100% completely in favor of having a permanent, armed, goon squad at my whim, allowed to beat up anyone.

    Obama's living this slashdot dream. Just think what he might do if he became president.