UK cops eye shotgun cartridge Taser The Home office has confirmed it's eyeing the Taser eXtended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP) for possible deployment with UK police forces, the Guardian reports. The XREP cartridge. Pic: Taser Taser describes the XREP as "the most technologically advanced projectile ever deployed from a 12-gauge shotgun". The company …
I think you've just come up with the next hot technology in riot control.
Any Police force with a sense of humour* using this should fill their water cannon with Chilli sauce as, if you are shooting mouthy gits with kebabs, you just know what the first smart-arsed retort from the splatterees is going to be.
*I know, it's a big ask.
I think the biggest conern here is that people are worried that the police will be more likely to use a less-lethal projectile than they would a lethal projectile, so the barrier to use comes down meaning that more rounds get used, which increases the chances of innocent people getting hit by them. I know that many people argue that being shot with a taser round is preferable to being shot with a shotgun round, but that is not the point. The point is that the very label less-lethal makes the use of these rounds more likely. In the UK we have seen an increase in police action that has resulted in loss of innocent life, and that's just with their bare hands!
it all depends WHAT it is used for.and when. We all know that both the Govt and Police are born liars ,and look at the RIPA's use for dog fouling. I guess they will eventually issue these long range tasers for the Stasi Police to use on Saturday nights and on pensioners who argue over parking tickets as they have done with normal tasers.
They forgot to put the laughter track on that promo video: "a stunning technological achievement" - that will have'em rolling in the aisles.
So the four front pins stab you first (while rotating... wonder what that does), the back end drops off and six more pins in it stab you somewhere else and start giving you a shock between the two parts, then, when you (as a reflex) clap your hand to the pain, it starts shocking you through your arm too. I'm so glad it's humane.
Mine's the conductive flak jacket... no, the other one... uhh, did everyone bring the same jacket today?
a shotgun firing blanks at close range can kill with ease. these new weapons are absolutely guaranteed to stop human beings in their tracks, whilst inflicting (just about) the maximum corporeal damage possible within the framework of the law. there is every possibility that these kind of cartridges will fall foul of the geneva convention, which a) proscribes the use of shotguns (using flechette or area-effect ammunition) and b) the use of torture against protected persons, i.e. non-combatants and civilians. this is an American weapon and the US don't give a flying fuck about this, of course: even their police go tooled up with these brutally inhumane devices. that this country is considering following American lead on this particular issue shows the depths to which this country's leadership has sunk and belies the total lack of regard in which they hold their population. i should imagine liberty international will be taking a very dim view of the above described weaponry, and rightly so.
it seems that we may now face a situation where the police may be carrying loaded shotguns on UK streets. how are civilians supposed to react to this overt display of force? not even our military use shotguns against enemy combatants. what the fuck are the government on? if these 'less-than-lethal' weapons are deployed, criminals will have to get actual guns and the police will have no-one to blame but themselves when they start getting pulped in their boots. no sensible career criminal will want to start carrying heavy metal, but by upping this particular ante the government will render very heavily leaded firearms the only remaining option to the serious outlaw. moreover, these devices, once in general use throughout the MET (for it will be they doing the testing) will, absolutely guaranteed, be used against innocents, peaceful protesters in the interests of 'maintaining order' - viz. repression.
the cops, like anyone trying to do a difficult job, will always moan that they don't have enough resources. this may be true in certain cases, but they don't need to be armed with shotguns loaded with high tech weaponry to protect the public from itself - they can already deploy lethal weapons when necessary, a truncheon should be more than sufficient when not. it is hard to admit, but when our establishment considers arming its civilian peacekeepers with weapons like shotgun fired electric shock ammunition, it only seems to be seeking the next step on the route to blur the line between citizen and criminal.
i read articles like the above and cannot help but think about civil disobedience. AC for very fucking obvious reasons.
Obviously 20 seconds is worst case scenario, 5 seconds is probably enough to disable an old age pensioner or pregnant woman, but a protesting docker or miner, or even the proverbial tall threatening photographer, may need a longer shock to knock them down.
It may also take 20 seconds of current to scramble the memory card in the all threatening photographer's camera as well.
Back in the 70's in Northern Ireland it was common practice to retrieve expended rubber bullet projectiles, hollow them out and fit them with small electric motors with eccentric weights on then. Nice of the stasi plods to now supply the battery.
"The premise behind the XREP is not to cause or impart physical pain". How true, its main purpose is to make profits for the manufacturer and/or patent holder. How much doe these rounds cost anyway, and how does that cost compare to a fitness program for the plods.
What's next the taser landmine? Woops, I'd better patent that ASAP..
Paris, she knows what to do with a used rubber bullet.
These days the police (and indeed the government) have a blanket defence, it's that of acting in good faith.
Shoot an innocent man several times at point blank range and it's OK as long as you believe the target to be a terrorist and are acting in good faith.
Invade a country and cause thousands of deaths and that's OK too as long as you thought the country posessed WMDs and were acting in good faith.
So the fact that these devices WILL cause heart attacks and kill people is not a problem because it will be found that everybody from the police officer who pulled the trigger all the way up to the manufacturer was acting in good faith.
Funny isn't it that the same defence has never worked for an ordinary Joe?
so the police cant ram a car-wielding maniac off the road because the maniac may get hurt, so they will let him drive at 100mph through a town until he hits an innocent minding thier own business.
the police wont prosecute politicians who falsify expenses claims and steal money from the taxpayer, but they can 'kettle' those taxpayers when they use their right to peaceful protest and seriously injur or kill those who do not comply.
now they are arming them with longarms that WILL kill. I shoot shotguns and to project anything over 100ft accurately will require that the projectile retains considerable energy out to that range. As you decrease the range you increase the impact energy to the point at which the round will become lethal. The plastic wad from a 12G sporting cartridge will punch through 10mm ply very easily at about 3 meters.
...tasers employ Direct Current rather than Alternating Current, so it shouldn't be necessary to ground oneself to defend from them. All that would be needed is a preferred path for the electricity to the salt-water in human flesh. Metal mesh should do the job nicely--with lower resistance, the electricity should prefer the metal, giving you a much weaker shock should you still be contacted.
People have mentioned missed shots that hit innocents. I'm wondering what'll happen if said shot happens to go in the drink...or worse, into an occupied swimming pool.
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