New Rifle Tech Offers Variable Muzzle Speed

Ponca City, We love you writes "A gun that fires variable-speed bullets that can be set to kill, wound, or just inflict a bruise is being built by a Lund and Company Invention, a toy design studio that makes toy rockets powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolyzing water. The company is being funded by the US Army to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead. The new weapon, called the Variable Velocity Weapon System or VWS, lets the soldier use the same rifle for crowd control and combat, by altering the muzzle velocity. It could be loaded with 'rubber bullets' designed only to deliver blunt impacts on a person, full-speed lethal rounds, or projectiles somewhere between the two. Bruce Lund, the company's CEO, says the gun works by mixing a liquid or gaseous fuel with air in a combustion chamber behind the bullet. This determines the explosive capability of the propellant and consequently the velocity of the bullet. 'Projectile velocity varies from non-lethal at 10 meters, to lethal at 100 meters or more, as desired,' says Lund. The existing VWS design is a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) rifle weapon, but Lund says the technology can be scaled to any size, 'handgun to Howitzer.'"

Set the howitzer to stun!

[joe_n_bloe]

Why exactly would I want to fire a 155mm projectile slowly?

Firing rubber chickens. That must be it.

Re:Set the howitzer to stun!

[joe_n_bloe]

And punkin' chunkin.

Re:Interesting...

[tsalmark]

Dick Cheney not withstanding, in most shooting sports, normally you are supposed to shoot forwards and level or higher.

Re:Overuse again...

[Anonymous Coward]

spock, phasers on 10 pumps!

yes captain.

(big ugly pizza turtle monster crawls out of solid rock!!!!)

CORRECTION SPOCK, 30 PUMPS I SAID 30 PUMPS!!!!

Re:Why exactly would I want to fire a 155mm?

[MRe_nl]

Only kidding ; )
I was just envisioning the pi//police wheeling out a 155 and pointing it
at a peacefull demonstration / protest:
"Don't worry, good people of Oceania, it is but set to stun"
"Did he just say run?"
"I'm not sure but i think we'd better."

Re:Oh, good.

[davester666]

I would bet I still have to spend a good long time in the hospital if I'm hit from the Howitzer, even if it is set on 'stun'.

Lund says the technology can be scaled to any size

[greenguy]

I can't wait to see the Howitzer that leaves a bruise.

Re:Why exactly would I want to fire a 155mm?

[joe_n_bloe]

My rubber chickens are bigger than your rubber chickens.

Re:It's interesting...

[techno-vampire]

...that now we've got toy companies helping the military make 'non lethal weapons'

Why not? it's not like they've never helped make lethal weapons. In case you didn't know, the M-16 was originally developed my Mattel.

Re:It's interesting...

[east coast]

the M-16 was originally developed my Mattel.

That high-pitched sound you hear is Eugene Stoner spinning in his grave.

Re:Oh, good.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is in acknowledgment that anything propelled by a non-trivial amount of powder has the power to kill, even bean bags and rubber bullets or tasers.

Tasers propelled by gun powder? Shit, that would ruin anyone's day.

Re:Oh, good.

[Trespass]

Quit teasing the college students. They might spit in your food.

non-lethal Howitzer

[rbanffy]

I wonder how that one would work.

Re:Oh, good.

[arpad1]

Thank you Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Re:Oh, good.

[c6gunner]

i know what you mean. i'd prefer that they blow you hippie freaks away rather than just stunning you when you riot and destroy other peoples property.

Naw, life would be too dull if we didn't have hordes of idiots fawning over the Great Works of Che Guevera.

Also, if you switch to live ammo, Linux will die overnight, the makers of Mountain Dew will go out of business, and Slashdot will be full of people who RTFA. Can't have that, now can we?

Re:Oh, good.

[loganrapp]

Please, you think the Linux hordes would be at a riot? The sunburns they'd incur would be catastrophic.

Re:Set rifle to stun!

[Anonymous Coward]

"but Lund says the technology can be scaled to any size, 'handgun to Howitzer.'"

Set Howitzer to STUN!

Re:You only need 2 settings....

[Thanshin]

Hell, on Star Trek, they only needed 2 settings, Stun and Kill.

What do we need in between those two settings?

- Poke
- Annoy
- Discomfort
- Stun
- Harm
- Maim
- Cripple
- Mutilate
- Dismember
- Terminate
- Massacre
- Disintegrate
- Erase
- Unmake

Set gun to "Random".

[Thanshin]

Are you feeling lucky, punk?

Nerf!

[tehdaemon]

You forgot to include 'effective' in your list.

Nerf makes a whole line of "safe non-lethal weapons". I don't think the army is interested... :-)

T

Re:Oh, good.

[dangitman]

But a funny thing happened on the way to the air force base--- it had suddenly become operation JUST CAUSE.

Are you sure there wasn't an apostrophe there? E.g: "Operation Just 'Cause".

Re:You only need 2 settings....

[OzoneLad]

You could even add a few from Spider Jerusalem's bowel disruptor:

-Loose
-Prolapse
-Hideous Anal Volcano
-Fatal Intestinal Maelstrom

Obligatory Dr. Who Reference

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot EX-TERM-I-NATE!

Less-pregnant?

[getuid()]

Eh, almost all manufacturers and professional groups in the US now refer to them as less-lethal not non-lethal.

So, I guess that if I used a paper tissue instead of no condom at all, my girlfriend would get less-pregnant, eh? :-) But then, again, I'm a slashdotter, so why the worry...

Re:Oh, good.

[seanonymous]

Wow, you must be new here. People who write about facts they actually know something about can be found in the the 'articles' section. This is the 'comments' section. We just spout off blatherously.