Army Wants Rapid-Fire Rubber Bullets for Crowd Control
February 22nd, 2011Via: New Scientist:
THE US army is planning to field “rubber bullets” for machine guns. Military officials claim the ammunition will allow them to more effectively quell violent protests without loss of life, but human rights campaigners are alarmed by the new weapon.
The final design for the XM1044 round has not been selected, according to an order placed on the Federal Business Opportunities website last month, but the army’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been working on a ring aerofoil projectile for some years. The round is a hollow plastic cylinder 40 millimetres across, looking something like a short toilet-paper roll. In flight its shape generates lift, giving it a longer range.
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Firing rapidly at long range is likely to be dangerously inaccurate, says Angela Wright of Amnesty International. “Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders, ricochets and of hitting vulnerable areas of the body,” she says.
Despite being hollow and plastic, if a round were to strike someone in the head, it could severely injure or kill them, she adds.
Research Credit: neverwas
“Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders”
That’s the point. Crowd control is all about collective punishment. It’s not just to stop rioters, but to discourage protests of any kind.
Yes, I have some silenced 22 caliber bullets on my wish list too. Problem is I have to go out and find then and pay for then too.
The U.S. Defense Department and National Security apparutus should be defunded for a year. Or two.
All this military wish list and CIA black listed off budget stuff is what has sent this country to ruin. Let them who want the stuff to kill people find their own means of paying for it for a change that you can believe in.