From: "Chad Cooper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
No one here has mentioned non-lethal weapons. The Taser has come a long way, and fufills all of the requirements of a pistol or rifle, except for the range, which is limited to 15 feet. However, for home defense, 15 ft is acceptable, since this is the typical bedroom length. Modern tasers also have features of fast reload, and for those times of close combat, it will stun on touch, without firing. I believe that this fulfills the requirements stated so far for home defense, and addresses the safety concerns brought up related to gun ownership. Here is a list of features of newer tasers: http://www.surveillance-security-protection.com/air_tasers.html
Interesting idea, but I see a few problems: - It says the optimal range is 7-10 feet, which results in a 16" spread on the electrodes. It seems to me that if your aim is off by more than a few inches, one of the probes might miss completely. And that concern would be even greater if you had to fire at the maximum range of 15' - If you miss (see above) or if there is more than one attacker, you're mostly screwed. The point-blank stun gun feature is nice, but I don't see it being that much of a deterrent/defense against a large attacker(s) armed with a knife, especially if they are skilled in hand-to-hand combat and you aren't, or if you are out-sized/strengthed by the attacker. - It says up to 15 minutes incapacitation... What do you do if it takes the cops longer than that to show up? Can you re-stun them with the stun gun, or are the batteries dead by that point?
Imagine combining D. Brin's vision of survailance cameras with automated tasers. An intruder trips a motion detector, a brief warning, and any movement triggers the taser to fire. The liability is minimial, requires no interaction from the home owner (one not even need to call the cops, the alarm will do it automatically), and immobilizes a criminal long enough for cops to show up.
I wonder if 15 minutes is long enough in all cases
It is truly sad that some children are involved in gun accidents.
Yeah, with 3 small children in the house, I think I'd have to lock up a gun so securely to make sure they couldn't get it that it'd be almost worthless for home defense.
I agree with D. Brin that guns are primarily a macho thing. This may soon
pass, but only when it becomes distasteful to own a gun. This won't happen
with current Hollywood archtypes (Cop shows MUST Die! Anyone care to start a thread - I especially like CSI - a cop show without guns...).
We're big cop show fans - We watch all the "Law and Order"'s and "CSI"'s. We
gave up on NYPD Blue about 2 seasons ago. Anyone here watch The Shield?
Cop and detective shows are among the few types of TV my wife and I can agree
on.
Interestingly enough, a new highly anticipated First person shooter PC games
to release this month, Deus Ex: Conspiracy War, highlights that one can go
through the game without killing a single NPC. There will be enough
non-lethal means to dispatch evil guards to make this happen. Perhaps this
is a turning point - the new challenge is to NOT use guns to win.
Deus Ex 1 was a surprisingly great game for me (especially because it came free
with my video card so I had no expectations for it!) I'll definitely buy the sequel
when it comes out.
If you like that kind of game, you might also what to check out the No One Lives
Forever series, and also the Thief series of games. I don't think they go so far as
to enable winning with absolutely no killing, but they do offer a lot more non-lethal
alternative solutions than most games of that type do. I'm currently playing No
One Lives Forever 2 (only $16 at Costco - woot!), and it's great so far.
-bryon
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