Ferguson police testing 'less lethal' gun attachment

[Jazzy]

Ferguson police are testing new methods of incapacitating suspects — six months after a highly controversial police shooting involving one of their officers.

This week, five instructors for the Missouri city’s police department are training to use a "less lethal" device, called the Alternative, which has enough force to knock a suspect to the ground but not kill him or her.

The Alternative is a small orange device that attaches to the top of a normal handgun and extends a Ping-Pong-ball-sized projectile in front of the muzzle.

After traveling through the barrel, the bullet embeds itself inside the alloy projectile, and the docking unit immediately detaches from the weapon, according to the manufacturer.

This process decreases the bullet's velocity and dampens its impact. The bullet, then, should not pierce a human’s skin and cause the type of internal damage that would kill the person. However, it retains enough blunt force to knock someone over and deliver severe, debilitating pain.

California-based manufacturer Alternative Ballistics says the device "represents a critical 'missing link' between lethal force and less lethal force."

As Ellis said, “This product isn’t to be used when the officer’s life is in danger or a civilian’s life is in danger. Obviously if someone has a gun or bomb, the officers have to react. But there are some situations where officers do have the time to make a different option.”

While the Alternative may sound like a good solution for police departments, there could be some unintended risks.

Steven Horwitz, professor of economics at St. Lawrence University, who sometimes applies the laws of economics to situations beyond the realm of finance, fears that this device could result in something economists call a “moral hazard.”

“By insuring officers against the less bad outcome, you are actually encouraging them to engage in riskier behavior,” he said in an interview with Yahoo News.

Horwitz argues that the assumption behind the creation of this device is that one shot with this less damaging bullet is substituting for one shot with a regular bullet. But it might end up substituting the less damaging bullet for no bullets at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CUYMFSXoQ

Your thoughts on this "less lethal" device?

 

[DrLeftover]

"Set phaser to stun."

 

[Jazzy]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Cops already have a host of "less than lethal" devices available. When the decision to use deadly force happens, it is usually very quick, reactive, instinctive, and needs to be effective. This device would disable the officers weapon for at least the first shot in a gun fight. Put this thing on a gun designated as a less than lethal weapon. Cops have bean bags, pepper spray, tasers, batons, and control holds. This device will get cops killed.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Cops already have a host of "less than lethal" devices available. When the decision to use deadly force happens, it is usually very quick, reactive, instinctive, and needs to be effective. This device would disable the officers weapon for at least the first shot in a gun fight. Put this thing on a gun designated as a less than lethal weapon. Cops have bean bags, pepper spray, tasers, batons, and control holds. This device will get cops killed.

AGREED!

 

[+paradox]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Cops already have a host of "less than lethal" devices available. When the decision to use deadly force happens, it is usually very quick, reactive, instinctive, and needs to be effective. This device would disable the officers weapon for at least the first shot in a gun fight. Put this thing on a gun designated as a less than lethal weapon. Cops have bean bags, pepper spray, tasers, batons, and control holds. This device will get cops killed.

AGREED!

this is for people that aren't holding a firearm...

if someone is holding a firearm then this is not needed, but if someone is holding a knife then using deadly force to arrest the suspect is idiotic when they train using non-lethal options just for that reason...

sometimes cops are too trigger happy and shoot people that aren't even holding a weapon, but the cop "thought" they had one or "thought" that they were reaching for one...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Cops already have a host of "less than lethal" devices available. When the decision to use deadly force happens, it is usually very quick, reactive, instinctive, and needs to be effective. This device would disable the officers weapon for at least the first shot in a gun fight. Put this thing on a gun designated as a less than lethal weapon. Cops have bean bags, pepper spray, tasers, batons, and control holds. This device will get cops killed.

AGREED!

this is for people that aren't holding a firearm...

if someone is holding a firearm then this is not needed, but if someone is holding a knife then using deadly force to arrest the suspect is idiotic when they train using non-lethal options just for that reason...

sometimes cops are too trigger happy and shoot people that aren't even holding a weapon, but the cop "thought" they had one or "thought" that they were reaching for one...

Comply with the cops orders or get shot. Pretty simple. Don't need to waste more tax dollars for these stupid weapons.

 

[+paradox]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Cops already have a host of "less than lethal" devices available. When the decision to use deadly force happens, it is usually very quick, reactive, instinctive, and needs to be effective. This device would disable the officers weapon for at least the first shot in a gun fight. Put this thing on a gun designated as a less than lethal weapon. Cops have bean bags, pepper spray, tasers, batons, and control holds. This device will get cops killed.

AGREED!

this is for people that aren't holding a firearm...

if someone is holding a firearm then this is not needed, but if someone is holding a knife then using deadly force to arrest the suspect is idiotic when they train using non-lethal options just for that reason...

sometimes cops are too trigger happy and shoot people that aren't even holding a weapon, but the cop "thought" they had one or "thought" that they were reaching for one...

Comply with the cops orders or get shot. Pretty simple. Don't need to waste more tax dollars for these stupid weapons.

haha, that's what a nazi would say...

if someone doesn't have a weapon then they shouldn't need to get shot and/or killed by a trigger happy pussy of a cop that shouldn't be a cop in the first place...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Cops already have a host of "less than lethal" devices available. When the decision to use deadly force happens, it is usually very quick, reactive, instinctive, and needs to be effective. This device would disable the officers weapon for at least the first shot in a gun fight. Put this thing on a gun designated as a less than lethal weapon. Cops have bean bags, pepper spray, tasers, batons, and control holds. This device will get cops killed.

AGREED!

this is for people that aren't holding a firearm...

if someone is holding a firearm then this is not needed, but if someone is holding a knife then using deadly force to arrest the suspect is idiotic when they train using non-lethal options just for that reason...

sometimes cops are too trigger happy and shoot people that aren't even holding a weapon, but the cop "thought" they had one or "thought" that they were reaching for one...

Comply with the cops orders or get shot. Pretty simple. Don't need to waste more tax dollars for these stupid weapons.

haha, that's what a nazi would say...

if someone doesn't have a weapon then they shouldn't need to get shot and/or killed by a trigger happy pussy of a cop that shouldn't be a cop in the first place...

That's what common sense is.

Again comply with the orders and you don't get shot and fight it in court.

 

[+paradox]

i'm glade that you're not a cop @liberty...

you'd probably be one of those cops that shoot and kill unarmed people because you think you're in fear of your life and shooting the person in the head was the only option...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

i'm glade that you're not a cop @liberty...

you'd probably be one of those cops that shoot and kill unarmed people because you think you're in fear of your life and shooting the person in the head was the only option...

I would be one of those cops that shoots to kill a guy charging me with intent to hurt me.

 

[Nebulous]

i'm glade that you're not a cop @liberty...

you'd probably be one of those cops that shoot and kill unarmed people because you think you're in fear of your life and shooting the person in the head was the only option...

I would be one of those cops that shoots to kill a guy charging me with intent to hurt me.

You'd better think he's gonna kill you and have a great story to back it up.