US Army wants rapid-fire rubber bullets for crowd control

Pretty disturbing really that with the ever increasing threat of Public Disorder at home and abroad, the US army now want rapid fire plastic bullets for crowd control. I'm all for non lethal weapons but even rubber bullets can be lethal if they strike certain parts of the body.
Lets just hope that they arn't deployed at home in the near future.

THE US army is planning to field "rubber bullets" for machine guns. Military officials claim the ammunition will allow them to more effectively quell violent protests without loss of life, but human rights campaigners are alarmed by the new weapon. The final design for the XM1044 round has not been selected, according to an order placed on the Federal Business Opportunities website last month, but the army's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been working on a ring aerofoil projectile for some years. The round is a hollow plastic cylinder 40 millimetres across, looking something like a short toilet-paper roll. In flight its shape generates lift, giving it a longer range. The army's existing crowd-control rounds are single shots fired from handheld grenade launchers with a range of about 50 metres - the XM1044 would double this range. It would be supplied in belts for the Mk19 grenade launcher, a truck-mounted weapon that can fire almost six rounds per second. The Mk19 has been exported to some 30 countries, including Egypt. "The US army has a requirement for a rapid-fire non-lethal capability," says Ken Schulters, project manager for close combat systems at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. "All currently fielded non-lethal ammunition is single shot." Firing rapidly at long range is likely to be dangerously inaccurate, says Angela Wright of Amnesty International. "Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders, ricochets and of hitting vulnerable areas of the body," she says. Despite being hollow and plastic, if a round were to strike someone in the head, it could severely injure or kill them, she adds.

New Scientist

Why else do you think they want them now ? One step away from the real thing......

Whats the problem here?
Other then sounds like the Army is ramping up for demonstrations. History shows that the Army has been preparing for that for a while now. But is it for domestic or foreign use?

As for lethal over non-lethal? A fork can be a lethal weapon.
The rubber round are not fired directly at the person(s). They are fired at the ground in front of the target and the rounds skip and strike. The skipping slows the rounds down.

This is a bunch of crap they allready have a truck mounted sonic cannon that can mess someone up pretty bad.This looks like the army wasting more money how about they invest in better pay and mental health for our troops instead.

There is a difference between 'wanting' and 'squeezing the trigger' of such weapons.

May the soldier who squeezes the trigger upon unarmed masses, domestic or foriegn, sleep easy every night. Not that the military-industrial complex would care, anyway. They only care about their toys-profits.

You do realize you have the ability to stop these things with the mind.

They have been conditioning your beliefs for 1000s of years in such a way that you believe you do not have these abilities or powers. After all its just Hollywood fictional nonsense right?

The main thing they use to cloud your abilities is to keep you in a permanent state of fear, shame, guilt, and anger. This is where it gets tricky though...You dont even know you have these hinderances and actually believe you are free from it because its so deeply embedded in your subconscious. The ones that dont believe they carry the fear, shame, guilt, and anger are the ones that are enslaved the worst. You are stuck in 3d and linear thinking.

The ones that are aware and claim that they do have this fear, shame, guilt, and anger are actually closer to being able to exercise these abilities.
But its just Hollywood fictional nonsense right?

reply to post by superluminal11


Huh are you talking about using phycic abilities to stop bullets from hitting you?That sounds like a great idea you go first i'll be right behind you.

I hear they have already deployed microwave guns mounted on hummers. Not good.

Originally posted by macman
Whats the problem here?
Other then sounds like the Army is ramping up for demonstrations. History shows that the Army has been preparing for that for a while now. But is it for domestic or foreign use?

When was the last time the military needed a TON of rubber crowd-control bullets for a huge crowd in some other country? That's half serious and half sarcastic. If we use a great deal of crowd-control bullets in foreign countries often, please let me know. Otherwise, I can't remember a situation even in Iraq or Afghanistan lately where the military was heavily firing on a massively protesting crowd for control; they shoot to kill there.

To me, this is one of two things:
1) It is intended for domestic use.
2) US Intelligence has become aware of impending uprisings in extremely important ally countries where we might be willing to come in and help suppress their people, like Israel, or Saudi Arabia (I don't know that they would need us, but it's an uber-important ally). But really.......can someone please make a good argument for me as to which country we would be willing to use this in besides Iraq and Afghanistan (where it seems unlikely that we would be using rubber instead of live ammo)?