Pentagon Developed 'Laughing Bullets'

plasmadroid writes "It might sound like a joke, but documents unearthed by New Scientist show that the Pentagon actually funded research into 'non-lethal' bullets that would also hit a target with a dose of laughing gas. That way, they'd not only be stunned but incapacitated by fits of giggles. Another idea was to put stink bombs inside rubber bullets. I guess it would work, but the idea of crowds of rioters giggling uncontrollably while being pelted with rubber bullets is truly bizarre..."

Why do we need the gas?

I know I laugh every time I pull the trigger.

That's just the way we roll, in my hood.

Re:Why do we need the gas?

Actually, it's out on the front stoop since we got wireless and all. With our 40s of Bawlz. Yeah, booooooyy!

Re:Why do we need the gas?

Or alternatively

Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!...
Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.

Re:Why do we need the gas?

I prefer "A baby seal walks into a club..."

freedom?

The freest and most democratic country on Earth spends far too many of its resources on novel ways to control people.

Re:freedom?

The freest and most democratic country on Earth

LOL

Re:freedom?

In Germany you go to jail if you speak the words "the holocaust never happened".

Re:freedom?

Etc. what? You're the beacon of freedom? I find that hard to believe - we're pretty much all as useless as each other, and if we're not yet, we will be in a few years' time.

Re:Ok, then

Ok, then how bout the country that god obviously loves the most.

Re:freedom?

Would you rather they just used lead bullets when rioters take to the streets?

Re:freedom?

Obviously not, lead is toxic to the environment.

...Oblig

You can't have manslaughter without laughter!

I feel safer already

Between stuff like this and a CIA who wasted millions of $ over 25 years on a program employing psychics [wikipedia.org] (I kid you not), don't you feel so much safer?

I wonder who the lucky contractor is who is going to be making a fortune off this one? Must be nice to make big money and never have to deliver anything which actually works. We have a military that was having to jerry-rig their own humvee armour and raise money from their parents to buy decent body armour--while contractors like this play around with nitrous bullets and loudspeakers.

Would it even work?

The question is: would it even work? Or would those contractors get big bucks for possibly the dumbest idea in history?

Laughing gas not only doesn't make people actually laugh, and certainly not in the minute quantities you can fit in a rubber bullet (doubly so considering that you'll aim at the chest, not pump the gas over their nose), it gets people euphoric (a sort of high, basically), might even cause slight halucinations, and it dulls the sensation of pain.

So shoot enough of these in an angry crowd, and now you have a crowd that's (A) angrier, since you just shot at them, (B) manic enough to do dumber things than normally, and (C) a lot less sensitive to pain. Just so, you know, they won't be as deterred by further rubber bullets or tear gas or a police batton. It sounds to me like just what you need to turn some unruly demonstrators into an outright riot. Or an outright riot into hell broken loose.

Especially B scares me. Being high even on nitrous oxide might just impair people's judgment just that tiny little bit needed to do something really dumb. Like "heehee, let's throw a big rock at the cops." Or "heehee, let's get their guns and shoot a bystander." Sure, it's no LSD, but we're talking the kind of situations where it often takes just a spark to go downhill fast. You might need just one guy getting over his inhibitions or thinking he saw or heard the awfully wrong thing, to spark everyone else into going berserk.

Safe for entire range?

The article claims that the bullets would be safe over the entire range. I wonder how they made the bullets strong enough to survive the force of being fired, but weak enough to disintegrate harmlessly when striking flesh at point blanc.

Re:Safe for entire range?

Perhaps it's like a Simunition FX [wikipedia.org].

And please, don't misunderstand the non-lethal aspect of the technology. Non-lethal doesn't mean harmless. These rounds would likely cause bruises and sometimes breaks of the skin. I guess it's still better then being dead.

Re:Safe for entire range?

A baseball could cause the exact injuries that the pepper spray dispenser did to that poor girl.

If we were to define non-lethal as not possible to kill someone with, we couldn't even define marshmallows as non-lethal due to their choking hazard.

I would still rather get shot by a bean bag or teargas dispenser than a bullet or lead slug. Sure, it could kill me, but it is much less likely to.

The Joker

The Joker is working for DARPA now?

Paintball fills

I thought the use of paintballs filled with CS gas and permanent markers was already fairly wide spread by law enforcement...

Reminds me of the gay bomb they wanted to make

Now THAT had me laughing ... except for the price tag - $7.5 million. I guess they wanted to add a whole new meaning to the term "comrades-in-arms."

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_159222541.h tml [cbs5.com]

Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'

(CBS 5) BERKELEY A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb. Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond.

The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994.

"The Department of Defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform," said a DOD spokesperson, who indicated that the "gay bomb" idea was quickly dismissed.

However, Hammond said the government records he obtained suggest the military gave the plan much stronger consideration than it has acknowledged.

"The truth of the matter is it would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed," he said. "In fact, the Pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons, and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider."

Military officials insisted Friday to CBS 5 that they are not currently working on any such idea and that the past plan was abandoned.

Gay community leaders in California said Friday that they found the notion of a "gay bomb" both offensive and almost laughable at the same time.

"Throughout history we have had so many brave men and women who are gay and lesbian serving the military with distinction," said Geoff Kors of Equality California. "So, it's just offensive that they think by turning people gay that the other military would be incapable of doing their job. And its absurd because there's so much medical data that shows that sexual orientation is immutable and cannot be changed."

Laughing Gas is a misnomer

"Laughing Gas" won't incapacitate you from fits of laughter. It's a hypnotic agent.

Actually quite a good idea for a payload if the delivery system works.

Hee Hee Hee

crowds of rioters giggling uncontrollably

They're called "Jokerz [wikipedia.org]".

This is not a laughing matter...

See... this is why the terrorists will laugh in your face!

If they use this, FOX will finally be able to show all those crowds of happy Iraqis it always brags about...

Tranquilizers

I don't know if any other /.ers have been dosed with the stuff, but nitrous oxide didn't make me laugh. Rather, I just felt like I was wrapped in cotton batting and floating, yet fully awake and able to move[1]. Maybe the dental assistant just did a good job of getting the level right.

[1] Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike being drunk.

Hazardous

Two big advantages were claimed for these bullets. Firstly, that they would be safe over their entire range, compared to existing rounds, which can be hazardous at close quarters.

Can be hazardous? I didn't know bullets were "potentially harmful" if fired at short range. I will have to study this.

On second thought...I'll just look it up.

At least it's better than

...than te gay bomb they also worked on.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4174519.stm [bbc.co.uk]

Joker Brand

New and improved Joker products! With a new secret ingredient: Smylex.

Vik..vik...Viki Vale.

"Laughing gas" isn't

Nitrous Oxide, also known as "Laughing gas" does not make people laugh. Read more here on WikiPedia [wikipedia.org].

Failed Stink Bomb Bullets

The Stink Bomb Bullets Project was scrapped because of the ineffectiveness against Hippies.

Heath Robinson invented this in 1914

The celebrated British artist drew one of his comic sketches exactly about this during the 1914-18 war.

BTWC

Looks like there are some gaping holes in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention..

Rather than laughter

picture the crowd becoming confused, unable to move, dizzy and falling over, hallucinating... and that lucky few who are allergic to it, vomiting and such. Not such a fun picture as a riot overcome by giggles. It may or may not be better than just pelting them with rubber bullets to disperse. It's intresting that this way more people would probably be detained rather than having a chance to run away.

Alternative to gas bullets...

Cast Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter.

Laughing Gas Does Not Generally Make You Laugh!

If a person breathes Nitrous Oxide mixed with air, he generally neither laughs or loses consciousness. A combatant would have to get several unadulterated lungfuls of N20 to pass out, and then would recover within a minute. How useless would this be as a weapon? How stupid can some in the military be? (I suspect the answer to both questions may be the same.)

By the way, in light doses N2O is an analgesic. That's right, help the enemy endure their aches and pains!

Geez we are talking bright here.

Ob(ligatory) Monty Python

From the "Killer Joke" skit:

"All through the winter of '43 we had translators working, in joke-proof conditions, to try and produce a German version of the joke. They worked on one word each for greater safety. One of them saw two words of the joke and spent several weeks in hospital. But apart from that things went pretty quickly, and we soon had the joke by January, in a form which our troops couldn't understand but which the Germans could".

Oh great

I can just see the hippies have one more reason to want to start a protest. Can't you just picture them fighting to see who can be in front when the police start using those! We might as well be pummeling them with baggies of mj and poppy seeds!

Ahh.. Slashdot viral marketing..

Can't you see the rioting/giggling meme is just part of the viral marketing for the next Batman movie!?!?

mppph.

Too bad "laughing" gas doesn't make you bust out laughing, rather than makes you tingle or black out.

It would have to take a massive concentration of Nitrous to take down a person in the open air. And if a threshold is broken, it would deprive your brain of oxygen and kill you. I've seen it actually happen to a friend under different circumstances.

I'm sure they found out the hard way, though. There's a reason it wasn't mainstream.

I has to be said

Getting shot is no laughing matter...

I submitted a similar story that got rejected

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_159222541.h tml [cbs5.com]

The Pentagon sought to build a "gay bomb" that would turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and thus reduce a potent military force into a twisting pile of sweating, spurting young men.

Anyone else seem concerned that the Pentagon is hitting up the Joker for ideas?

Prior Art

Conclusive proof, as if it were needed, that Monty Python were ahead of their time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IysnS5wO60g [youtube.com]

Stop that project! Killing people is GREAT!?????

That project needs to be stopped right away. What's the use of just temporarily incapacitating people? We need to make sure that anyone on the other end of the gun is dead, dead, dead, so we can forever enjoy the sorrow of their wives, children, and parents! Weeee! (boggle!)

For the sarcasm-impaired: The previous paragraph is obviously lunacy. Since it's lunacy, I think having non-lethal alternatives is a GOOD idea. Foes of yesterday may be friends tomorrow (think Japan of WW II, etc.), so even if you're in a war, you may NOT need to kill your foe. It'd be great to avoid killing in many cases. Wouldn't it be great if there were LESS carnage in the future, not MORE? Wouldn't it be great if after a confrontation, most wives / children / parents got their loved ones back?!?

Now this particular approach may not be very effective; maybe another one needs to be investigated instead. The term "non-lethal" is misleading; they DO kill occasionally (they just kill less often), and since they kill sometimes, they need to be reserved for serious situations the way lethal approaches are. That said, if you do not NEED to kill all your foes, having a "mostly non-lethal" alternative would be WAY better than the "mostly lethal" approach we have now.

Yes, there's a risk that non-lethal approaches would be employed to create a police state. But you can have police states with lethal approaches too, and in fact, I'd argue that lethal approaches are more effective at countering civilians. Dead civilians don't try again. If there's a non-lethal approach, the civilians can try again later, something you can't say about lethal approaches.

In addition....

to the laughing gas version, they're also working on a bullet filled with laxatives - but that story was probably started for shits and giggles. *** I'll get my things ***

Hard to control dosage

I would think there would be a risk of overdose.

Disappointment awaits.

Someone should tell them that Warner Brothers' cartoons lied to them. 'Laughing gas' doesn't really work that way. I'd think they'd have gotten less naive about drug names after all those years of disappointment with the anticlimactic effects of sodium pentothol 'truth serum'.

Laughing? Why not make them puke

What I loved is the paint ball gun funded by the LA Co. Sheriff's Dept. The balls contained a noxious substance that made the target immediately start to puke after they were hit.

Probably just as effective as laughing gas but a lot nastier to clean up.

Two Words: Emo Bullets

If they can get them smarty-pants scientists to figure out how to make emo bullets, all of the enemy combatants will come out all depressed and demoralized.

We Could Use This Against Jihadis

Lord knows they need a sense of humor.

Of Course

Of course before they use this they'll have to warn the crowd.

"Don't try anything funny, or you'll be laughing for sure"

Let's see, the Islamic terrorists are working on shemical and nuclear weapons and we're working on -- ways to make them laugh and become gay? What then, are they supposed to want to stop fighting and start redecorating their houses?

Try as I might, I just can't see John Wayne hosing down a group with a bunch of funny bullets.

"Stop right there, partner, or I'm going to make you laugh like you've never laughed before."

Non-Lethal

If I'm not completely mistaken then N20 or Nitrous Oxide a.k.a. Laughing Gas is the stuff car tuners use to punch some more horse powers out of their engines with. Isn't it highly flammable? I want to see the "Smoking Kills"/"Less-Lethal-Ammo" ad for that one!

Make wuv, not war

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_159222541.h tml [cbs5.com] =)

Stink Bombs

There are stink bombs that are effective at dispersing crowds. There's been quite a bit of research in the identification and synthesis of the chemicals that most humans find to be really disgusting, things like essence of rotting corpse.

Cool! A Minnie Driver/Anne Hathaway love scene.

> the Pentagon actually funded research into 'non-lethal' bullets that would also hit a target
> with a dose of laughing gas. That way, they'd not only be stunned but incapacitated by fits of giggles.

The article continues:

"The plan was for soldiers to fire the bullets at the target crowds, then, after they were lying on the ground laughing from the chemicals, to move in and arrest them for drug violations."

A better way - brown noise

I'm all for the brown noise theory myself
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note [wikipedia.org]
just because it'd be a hell of a thing to watch

poppin fresh

please say i wasnt the only one to think of poppin fresh

I knew it!

That's how they killed my hyena! I knew I'd get to the bottom of this.

Sorry to break this to them but....

....N2O does not make one laugh really. It makes one "High". Ask any Raver. Whippets, see? What are they, stupid? If you could get enough to the enemy though they would be incapacitated, just not by laughing. Standing their drooling like a zombie maybe, but not laughing.

Pain killer

Isn't laughing gas a pain killer, the same pain killer they give to women giving birth and used when pulling teeth. Is that so when you get shot you don't feel the bullets or the cop beating the crap out you?.

I've seen crazier

Still not as crazy as the gay bomb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb [wikipedia.org]

I know where they got this idea....

The 3 Stooges did this in one of their comedy skits 60 years ago.

fits of giggles?

I don't know about that. I've been under the effects of nitrous oxide, when I had my wisdom teeth removed several years ago. I don't know why they call it "laughing gas," as I didn't find anything funny about the hellish, excruciating pain I experienced during the procedure.

Re:first.... oh why bother

+5 insightful. lol.

Re:first.... oh why bother

Somewhere in Mount Olympus, the Gods must be hurling bolts of self awareness.