Posted on 02/20/2005 2:33:28 AM PST by FairOpinion
A NEW plastic stun gun can be smuggled past X-ray detector equipment at airports, anti-terror police have warned.
The gun, which paralyses with a 50,000 volt shock, can also spray CS gas and could become a favoured weapon of terrorists. It was found during a routine baggage search at Heathrow after its owner had passed through X-ray checks.
One airport-based detective said: "This is a major cause for concern. This stun gun is sophisticated and in the wrong hands lethal with potentially disastrous consequences."
Airport security staff have been alerted to the weapon's danger in the hands of terrorists.
Scotland Yard has issued officers with pictures of it and warned in a memo it had evaded X-rays and could spray CS gas.
Stun guns are illegal in the UK and police are probing a six-fold increase in the numbers found at ports and airports.
In 2004, 672 were seized, compared with 120 eight years ago.
Well, I am sure glad they found it!
50,000 volts isn't all that much really as stun guns go. Mine produces 500,000 volts and is perfectly legal to carry in Texas without any permit.
"can also spray CS gas"
Even in a closed environment, a group of passengers sprayed with CS would still be able to get control of the sprayer and pummel him to death. Someone going around shocking passengers with a stun gun would meet the same fate.
If it can spray CS, it can spray other things, such as sarin or biological agents -- people on the airplanes may not even know they've been sprayed, but when they go about their business they start getting sick.
Well, I'll be looking over my shoulder every time I get on a plane from now on.... bttt!
The CS is in sealed pressurized container and the container is custom fitted to the dimensions of the device (more than likely). It is very hard, and not at all worth the trouble, to empty these "spray cans" and recharge them with something else.
There are a lot of easy ways to bring materials such as worry you onto airplanes, and easy ways to leave them on the aircraft. This device is not one of them. Think toothpaste tube.
If this stuff bothers you so much you should study it some. It is really not complicated, and that is the trouble. Getting excited over nothing is really a bad idea when the situation is so serious.
bump for later
For maximum security, I'd suggest Speedos and sidearms only, allowed in the cabin.
LOL
thanks for your insight. the value of places like FreeRepublic is that people have more than their opinion to share.
Those who refuse are ushered to walk through a curtain made of pig skin to distinguish the Jews from the Muzzies. Jews have no objection to comming in contact with porcine products, just to injesting them.
Thus, with two quick tests the Muzzies are separated. A few questions will root out the radicals and the harmless Muzzies. If there is any doubt, the doubtful one is asked to disrobe in a private booth to check for shaved body hair.
Profiling it is. But also effective. The final line of defense for any who slip through are armed passengers.
OK.
Am I the only one who thinks it might be useful to profile who the owners of the 672 stun guns were?
For instance, if all of them had fake documents and were named Achmed...
" If it can spray CS, it can spray other things, such as sarin or biological agents -- people on the airplanes may not even know they've been sprayed...."
So can an ordinary pump sprayer, like you find in every market or drug store, full of hairspray or room dodorizer.
And I wonder about this shocker - most methods for generating high voltages require a metal coil with an iron core - not easy to hide from an Xray. One exception is a piezoelectric crystal, but these don't put out much current.
Yeah, me too. At least a toroid the size of a dime and windings, a transistor, a few small parts, batteries.
Filed for future crow eating party...
Um... Am I the only one who is pissed that this item was "discovered" during a routine baggage check... vs law enforcement and anti-terrorism "experts" KNOWING ABOUT IT THE MINUTE IT CAME ON THE MARKET ????????
Why don't we know about every "new" weapon the minute it is made and put on the black market??? Why do we have to "discover" these weapons almost upon their use?????
Or is it just me??????
(Or maybe we do know about these things? Maybe we don't report it so the terrorists/bad guys will go about their merry business and we can track them? Maybe we already knew about this weapon, but some media idiot decided he needed to make us look bad by reporting that we "discovered" it during baggage screening?)
Freedom is messy, but it works. While terrorists may use or adapt any market-available commodity, they can just as easily get a hold of "official" but diverted, black-market items, or fabricate their own expedient materiel. These types of news stories are designed to create pressure to regulate tools away from the serfs, not motivated criminals or competing government operatives.
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