US firm says handheld puke ray is ready to go

US firm says handheld puke ray is ready to go

Pistol style chunder-gat and torch/vom-sabre models

By Lewis Page

A U.S. industrial laser company says it has developed a functional puke-ray system, ideal for use by cops or military personnel wishing to take down their opponents without shooting them. The firm proposes to issue the "non lethal light fighting technology" in two form factors - light-sabre/torch and blaster-pistol.

The so-called Dazer Laser™ technology comes from Laser Energetics Inc, of New Jersey, which has been supplying more conventional laser equipment since 1991. Now, however, the company is pleased to announce its new Defender™ and Guardian™ chunder-beam weapons.

According to Laser Energetics' statement:

These non-lethal weapons have the ability to control the threat at ranges of 1 meter to 2400 meters (model dependent). The Dazer Laser™ - Light Fighting Technologies - emit a green “eye safe” laser beam, that is shaped into approximately a 1 foot to 8 foot Dazer Zone™ (model dependent) which when focused on the threat’s eyes, the threat’s vision is temporarily impaired, their balance is effected, and they become affected by nausea. This controls the threat making it difficult for them to maneuver. The Ultimate Non – Lethal Weapon.

"This life saving non-lethal weapon will help all branches of the military, law enforcement, correctional facilities, security, border patrol, piracy control, homeland security, airport security and much more," says Laser Energetics CEO Robert Battis.

Battis says that his regurge-ray weapons are better than the well-known Taser electrojolt stungun as they have a longer effective range and aren't single-shot. If an embattled cop, soldier etc. misses the target at first he can simply swing the dazzle-beam onto his opponent's face and leave him slipping and stumbling helplessly in a self-generated chunky puddle.

The Defender™ is the ray-pistol model, perhaps effective to 2400m; the Guardian™ is the cylindrical job which emits its belly-scrambling dazer rays from one end like a torch. The Guardian™ will work out to 100m, according to the Laser Energetics pdf brochure. Both models also have a "searchlight" illumination mode - presumably without the nauseating special sauce. There's no word yet on price.

It seems that there may be countermeasures that would have some effect against Dazer™-toting government goons. The company specifies that both models "can control the threat with the threat's eyes shut, making it difficult for them to manoeuvre". No mention is made of tactical possibilities involving mirrors, reflective sunglasses etc.

One question does spring to mind here. Do the rival puke-ray programmes at the Department of Homeland Security and the US Navy know about this? ®

'Buy puke-rays and we'll donate to police widows & orphans'

Make a move and the kid gets it

A U.S. firm which sells handheld puke-ray weapons for the police and military markets has adopted a novel marketing ploy. For every chunder-gat purchased, the company will donate a small sum to help the families of cops and troops who have been killed in the line of duty.

Laser Energetics of New Jersey announced that its Dazer Laser™ weapons were ready for shipping in June. The company offers a hefty raypistol-format job, the Defender™, or a handier torch/sick-sabre style affair called Guardian™. The weapons' flickering beams, when directed into an opponent's eyes, are said to cause nausea and impaired balance.

Now, to sweeten the deal even further for any police or military purchasing chiefs still undecided, Laser Energetics has pledged that for every Defender bought it will donate $25 (or $15 for a Guardian) to the "Have a Heart - Save a Life™" fund. This worthy organisation, set up by Laser Energetics and the Star Spangled Americans Society ("Ignore politics and embrace patriotism!") "will supply money to charities that provide donations to those families of the fallen brave", according to Laser Energetics.

"We anticipate we will make significant donations in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in the near future," states company CEO Robert D Battius, suggesting that he expects imminent regurge-raygun sales in the tens of thousands.

There's a certain irony here in that the company's hurl-weapons aren't intended to save the lives of American cops or troops, but rather those of their opponents. The vomit beams are supposed to offer a "non lethal" or "less lethal" option for plods or squaddies facing dangerous enemies - less final than firearms, but not as potentially risky as fisticuffs, clubs, the use of comparatively short-ranged and one-shot Taser electroprod guns etc. Better to leave a perp or terrorist groping blindly about with his eyes shut or floundering in a chunky puddle than to shoot, slug, gas or electrify him - that's the thinking.

That would only apply, of course, if the spew-beam tech actually worked. Even then the idea would still have its critics; and as yet it seems reasonable to be sceptical. Similar vom-ray efforts at the Department of Homeland Security have yet to produce a deployable weapon.

Laser Energetics' pledge may of course be just what it seems: an example of sturdy corporate patriotism. But it might also be a desperate attempt to blackmail police or military purchasers into coughing up for a largely ineffective product. ®

By Lewis Page • Get more from this author

From – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/01/laser_energetics_puke_ray/ and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/22/vom_weapon_marketing_widows_orphans/

Images - http://analogtalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/dazer2.jpg

http://www.azooptics.com/images/News/NewsImage_6620.jpg

http://www.stoppsywar.com/images/dazer_laser--small.jpg

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