CS can also cause pulmonary problems and, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, can significantly damage the heart and liver. Pepper spray, widely considered the most "humane" alternative can, according to a report from the North Carolina Department of Health, cause responses including "burning of the throat, wheezing, dry cough, shortness of breath, gagging, gasping, inability to breathe or speak (due to laryngospasm or laryngeal paralysis), and, rarely, cyanosis, apnea, and respiratory arrest." (Source)
In one case that received national attention, a Vermont state trooper used a Taser to kill an unarmed, 39-year-old epileptic man in June of 2012.
With death always a possibility, one would think that Tasers would not be employed lightly. But because they are regarded as usually harmless, that has hardly proven to be the case.
The vehicle-mounted cannon combined with the power of electromagnetic radiation blasts a beam of heat that makes the target feel an intense waft of heat comparable to quickly opening an extremely hot oven, except reportedly with more pain. Unable to withstand the intensity and quickness of the heat, the beam makes people automatically run or jump out of the way. (Source)
It doesn't make people run from it because of loudness—although at 120 dB, it's pretty darn loud. It repels because the sound it emits combines four frequencies spread out over 2-5 kHz. Those frequencies mixed together have a deeply disturbing effect on people, causing them to flee within seconds.
The Inferno, a Swedish import, was originally designed to protect public buildings, retailers, and boats, but the manufacturer intends to market it to commercial vehicles like taxis, and to law enforcement for riot control. It's almost sure to eventually find its way into private residences, as well.
First, when looking into NLWs, it might seem logical to divide them into civilian and military, but for all practical purposes there is so much overlap that the distinction barely exists. In fact, some weapons that have been banned from the battlefield are approved for law enforcement, as we shall see. And in modern-day, nonconventional warfare, soldiers are increasingly called upon to perform police duties. So there’s little point in separating the two.
...we now have various "dazzlers" that operate in either the red or—primarily because it works better in daylight—the green areas of the spectrum. Their purpose, according to the Department of Defense's Non-Lethal Weapons Reference Book: "Force protection, entry control points, checkpoints, and maritime ports and security zones to warn, deny, move, and suppress (e.g., distract, disorient, and degrade) individuals on foot and those operating vehicles/vessels."
Dazzlers are designed to emit coherent light beams that are less tight than with conventional lasers, in order not to cause permanent eye damage. There are a large number of models; one is the PHaSR or Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response rifle, which was developed in-house by the US Department of Defense.
Another, the Glare Mout, is a green laser that spreads to a larger spot at the intended target, making aiming the device at long distances or at multiple subjects much easier. The Glare Mout's effective range is 150 meters to 2 kilometers. Of course, you don't want to use it at close range, i.e., within the NOHD (that's bureaucratese for the "nominal ocular hazard distance"). That would cause permanent blindness, and the Glare Mout's range finder thus has a precautionary, automatic shutoff at 65 meters.
The StunRay is an optical incapacitation effector developed by Genesis Illumination that uses collimated (slightly less than laser) broad-spectrum visible and near-infrared light from a short-arc lamp to safely and temporarily impair vision, disorient, and incapacitate aggressors for 5 seconds to 3 minutes without causing physical harm.
The Saber 203 dazzler uses a 250 mW red laser diode, mounted in a hard plastic capsule in the shape of a standard 40 mm grenade, suitable for being loaded into an M203 grenade launcher. It has an effective range of 300 meters.
But that's nothing compared with the long-range ocular interruption (LROI) weapon presently under development by the Navy. That one is projected to be effective up to 3,000 meters, or nearly two miles. (emphasis added)
[...]
Optical NLWs are not limited to laser devices, either. There is, for example, also a weapon called the Dazzler, a very bright, stroboscopic LED flashlight that causes nausea, dizziness, headache, flash blindness, eye pain, and sometimes vomiting. The Dazzler was developed for the Department of Homeland Security, but is expected to be made available to local law enforcement in the near future. In the meantime, plans for a DIY version can be found on the Internet.
...a 40mm, multi-shot, electrically actuated grenade launcher mounted to the Marine Corps Transparent Armored Gun Shield turret. The system consists of three banks of ten launch tubes, each at fixed angles of 10, 20, and 30 degrees from horizontal, achieving 360-degree coverage, with a range of 400 feet. Flashbangs can also be rigged to be delivered as an airburst weapon with an increased applicability zone.
Just over the horizon: Sierra Nevada Corp., working under a US Navy contract, is reportedly ready to build a microwave ray gun called the MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio). The device fires short microwave pulses that penetrate the head and rapidly heat tissue, resulting in a shockwave inside the skull (emphasis added).
Finally, we shouldn't leave this subject without a quick mention of one of the more whimsical of recent NLW inventions, the speech jammer gun developed by some Japanese tinkerers. This device is not intended to incapacitate anyone, just to shut them up. Effective at up to a hundred feet, you simply aim it at someone who won't stop talking, and it broadcasts the speaker's own words back at him with a 0.2-second delay, causing him to become completely tongue-tied and unable to go on. Poetic justice indeed. Hmmm… We can think of a whole lot of Washingtonians (DC denizens, not the Pacific Northwest state citizens) we'd love to try this thing out on.
