Apparently, the new weapon against insurgents in Iraq is a paintball gun. Mind you, it’s a paintball gun that uses paintballs full of a mixture of paint and the brittle metal bismuth, and it’s a paintball gun that fires at 900 PSI compared to the standard 300-500 PSI, but it’s a paintball gun all the same.
The non-lethal weapon is meant for crowd control and getting people down without killing them. That’s all well and good, but with the bismuth inside designed to fragment on impact, I’m wondering just how non-lethal these things actually are. While they might not kill you outright if they hit you (unless you take it in the eye or something), you’re going to be in a serious world of hurt.
I mean, technically a baseball bat could be considered a non-lethal weapon, but I don’t know if it makes it laudably humane. [Danger Room]
