Risking to sound like an idiot; Fazer guns?

Just to quote Wesley Snipes in "Demolition Man":
"If this is the future, where are all the fazer guns?"

Exactly what is a "fazer gun" supposed to be? Were there any projects on this more than plastic equipment for G.I.-Joe action dolls? Man, I know I might sound like a moron here, but since it has been mentioned quite often in sci-fi movies and such there must have been something about it.

Anyone know anything?


Peace.

Here is an article about the USAF developing one (I believe it is usually spelled phaser, but that might just be in the Star Trek World)

extremephoton.com...

That's just a dazzler. Leave it up to USAF to make one that big and goofy looking.

In the words of Paul Hogan,

That's not a dazzler..THIS is a dazzler...



That's the big hand held one, there's a version that clips onto an M4. It's right at the hairy edge of "blinding weapon" so they eventually made the guys turn them back in.

Oh, and if you are using what you have at hand, a target designator into a set of optics without an IR filter for a few minutes will generally leave your observer unable to continue for quite some time.

On the other hand, the closest things I can think of that might fit the description are PEP variants and that Ionatron shoulder fired "rifle". Neither is practical, but they LOOK cool.