Non-Lethal Weapons Technology

Guns of increasing diversity can be bought by today’s citizens under their constitutional right to bear arms to provide for and protect themselves and their families. Unfortunately, guns of greater lethality can be illegally acquired by criminals to threaten innocent life. Accordingly, gun justice and injustice compose an escalating contest arena for life our nation, any nation, preferring peace and civility must endure.

Modern police work in the U.S.A. has somewhat holstered firearms to control unruly crowds and restrain uncooperative perpetrators of crime. Police officers, often larger in size to brave a scuffle, increasingly draw upon single-arm neck-locks reminiscent of old-time wrestling to subdue a resistor or agitator. Commonly called “choke holds,” the lock can focus on the windpipe to cut air supply. A resistor gasping for air will gradually cease struggling. If the hold is over-applied, the subject can black out or suffocate to death. Sadly, this has occurred around the U.S.A: you might web-research George Floyd 2020 (Minneapolis), Eric Garner 2014 (New York), and the 996 allegations of choke-hold abuse in NYC since 2014.

A Non-Lethal Weapons Technology (NLWT) I conceived over 20 years ago might obsolete the risky choke-hold maneuver. It involves use of a police-carried side arm or shoulder weapon functioning somewhat like a squirt gun. My design augments projection power of the aqueous stream by use of compressed air, CO2 cylinders, or electro-mechanical leveraging. Furthering weapons efficiency and range in the design involves digitizing the aqueous stream into discrete “water bullets,” creating machine-gun operability.

Winning the technical battle for range (I believe stream projection in excess of 100 feet is possible) and ammunition reserve (increasing the spacing between water bullets increases time-use of the chemically-modified mobile reservoir from which they are drawn), allows any Officer to engage a stressful situation at a safer distance. This weapons technology is estimated to create a 100-foot-radius zone of protection and control around the Officer. Present protocol for pepper spray places the Officer nearly in the grasp of a dangerous or damaging aggressor before it can be discharged. Accordingly, he can be hurt or killed before he is able to subdue or render help. In cases of live fire, a bull horn or cell phone can first establish contact and offer cool, wise advice to bring a tense situation peacefully under control from a safe distance. Few civilian situations put unlimited live ammunition in the hands of criminals, so sitting out live fire at a distance until adversary ammunition is exhausted is a viable non-lethal strategy. Were engagement obligatory, a Stream Gun could be judiciously fired, letting the impacting droplets release their “pepper” or “tear gas” or perhaps “ether” chemical incapacitation proximate the problem, while Officers remain at a safe distance. Armor vests worn by assailants would not repel a neutralizing chemical strategy, nor would police be obliged to trust their own safety to a vest that might not be adequate. Simply hiding behind circumstantial shielding (trees, walls, vehicles, etc.) and lobbing limitless chemical stream upon the perpetrator will eventually and safely bring the hazard under control. Exercising patient, non-lethal strategies benefits safe, peaceful law enforcement, as it allows hostility to dampen, emotions to cool, clearer thinking to prevail, various forms of crisis-diffusing back-up to arrive, or specialist counsel to mediate from anywhere in the world.

In my concept of crowd control or aggressor neutralization, I would always keep the Officer at a safe distance from hazard. I would remove clubs and guns from his mobile weapons array. He would be re-set as a Chemical Neutralization Agent with 2 or 3 Stream weapons on his person, operable at different radii of engagement. Never should he be in the grasp of violence, so an Untouchable Zone would be mandated at a radius of 6 feet or less. A short-range Stream Control Weapon would manage situations up to 12 feet radius (defending/controlling nearly 500 square feet), an intermediate Stream Control Weapon from 12 to 50 feet (defending/controlling nearly 8,000 square feet), and a long-range Stream Control Weapon from 50 to 100 feet (defending/controlling over 30,000 square feet or nearly ¾ acre).

Since a change to non-lethal weaponry means a change to Non-Lethal Police Officers, the new agenda carries with it a heightened sense of vulnerability. Implementation might reasonably be done incrementally. Perhaps a few courageous souls willing to serve from a non-lethal premise could seed the concept. Eventually a Non-Lethal Team could be formed. Early individual and team experience can allow the focal Police Department to build up experience and skill with non-lethal instrumentality, solve early problems while they are smaller, and eventually prove the concept. When the record speaks for itself, especially as no more lives are being lost in law enforcement, both police and citizen will gain confidence in the approach. Then could we hope to see the fruitfulness of de-escalating violence in society.

The example police set can go a long way towards influencing the posture taken by those erring into crime. If criminals think the law will oppose them with heavy weapons, they will arm with heavy weapons. If they expect an absence of firearms, crime might reduce in firepower. England is the only nation I knew that experimented with removal of side arms from their police. London gained respect as the most civilized City on earth for that action, but the practice of unarmed “Bobbies” did not last. Perhaps substituting non-lethal weapons for firearms among some Peace Officers in your municipality will bring enduring success, and rekindle the hope of Christian nations modeling matchless civility to the world. Only Judeo-Christian people are capable of peaceful democracy, having the light of God to individually guide in sure ways of peace.

It should be underscored that our children are the best hope of peace and civility. Patiently bringing them up to respect God, law and order, rights and freedoms of their fellow man is the only sure way to eliminate crime and loss of life. The wisdom of God gives each one all that he needs and reasonably desires, even abundant life, while allowing society to function frictionlessly. How shall the children learn if fathers fall into crime, fall victim to crime, or fall in law enforcement: an attrition problem larger than many appreciate today? Non-lethal policing will require smarter police tactics, more intelligent decision-making, and wiser strategies than we have used traditionally. My prayer is that out Dear Lord and Prince of Peace will grant such wisdom to each Cluster of Civility in our nation and the world-at-large, engendering peace as a process in police work, and not just an outcome.

#Lethal #Weapons