The personnel halting and stimulation response rifle (PHASR) is a prototype non-lethal laser dazzler developed by the US Department of Defense.
Its purpose is to temporarily disorient and blind a target.
Blinding laser weapons have been tested in the past, but were banned under the 1995 UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, which the United States acceded to on 21 January 2009. The PHASR rifle, a low-intensity laser, is not prohibited under this regulation, as the blinding effect is intended to be temporary. It also uses a two-wavelength laser
I’m surprised this hasn’t seen use by riot police.
I think they prefer non lethal weapons that can kill you
“Less lethal” please
Why use a laser when they can just shoot bean bags at peoples faces and explode their eyeballs that way.
Its a lot cheaper, you can use any old shotgun
Hell if you can just convince a group of right-wingers that the protesters are communist crisis actors or whatever you don’t even need to bust out the riot gear, they’ll sort it out for you!
Why use laser gun when shot gun do trick
Based on the article from Defense Review and the drop off of serious articles discussing it I’m guessing that the range difficulties made this unreasonable for police applications.
I’m glad they’re not effective for riot control. Using these types of weapons against civilians is dystopian.
Tear gas, batons, fire hoses, pepper balls, and shotguns with bean bags are all still ok though, right?
That’s just horror, suspense, action, drama, etc, all fine as long as it isn’t too ‘future-y’!
I dunno, sounds a lot less harmful than what rubber bullets do to people
If we’re going high tech, LRAD works better on crowds.