The idea of a powerful ray gun has been a staple of science-fiction writing for decades. But a “weapon” that shoots invisible beams of energy could be making its way into law-enforcement hands soon. Soon, How about Now
The Ray Gun In Action (CBS News)
The Pentagon has been developing a raygun which can harmlessly repel
enemies by causing a burning sensation in the top layer of the skin.
However, according to CBS’s 60 Minutes, the military is unwilling to actually trust this weapon enough to deploy it in Iraq.Hymes demonstrated the weapon by staging what CBS somewhat oddly called
“a scenario soldiers might encounter in Iraq” — a handful of military
volunteers, dressed as civilian protesters, who carried signs saying
“peace not war” and threw objects at a small group of soldiers. A
series of raygun blasts from half a mile away disrupted their chants
and finally sent them running. However, the failure to deploy the weapon as planned has raised
suspicions that the real intention is to use it for domestic crowd
control.
