Ask Slashdot: What Non-lethal Technology Has the Best Chance of Replacing the Gun?

Wycliffe writes: Most cops are not out to kill someone, but when someone reaches for a cellphone or their glovebox, the cop may assumes the worst and try to protect themselves from dying. Guns are used to immobilize the target, and aren't even that good at it when a person is charging. What other potential devices could be used to protect a cop so that guns are unnecessary? Foam? Lightweight body armor? Nets? Robots? 'M.A.N.T.I.S.' paralyzing gas? Force field? What non-lethal technology out there has the best potential to be more effective at immobilizing a target and/or protecting a cop than a gun?

Comments

Re:Well....

[mjm1231]

This is the only solution that might actually work.

This was already tried, and there is a TED talk on the topic which I am too lazy/busy to look up. I don't recall what country this happened in, but non-lethal weapons were handed out to a particular peace force with the intent that they would be used instead of guns, thus resulting in fewer instances of violence. The actual results were that the non-lethal instrument was used something like 10 times more often than guns were, and there was no real reduction in gun usage during police operations.

Re:Highest Profit

[bugs2squash]

Dynamite ones