Absolutely not. A non-lethal weapon is a less effective weapon. I ain’t about to bet my life on a glorified taser when I have other options that will blow large gaping holes in whatever I have determined needs killing.
Given how dangerous these could be, I suspect the Second Amendment fans would be disappointed when the courts either find an excuse to heavily regulate or ban them, or are even prompted to interpret the Second Amendment in a less pro-gun fashion. And of course, the rest of the world isn’t America and isn’t required to support its gun fetish.
For one thing, no ballistics evidence. Unless they can figure out a way of distorting the beam so it leaves a specific “fingerprint” on the target specific to that particular phaser, and of making it difficult for a criminal to remove. Also, unlike a pistol it could be used as a long range arson device (“Repeated stun bolts on any setting can burn severely”). And on top of that they’ll likely be more dangerous at longer range since an energy beam won’t have anything like bullet drop.
I do think the military will like them, since you can fire with great accuracy, and do everything from stunning people you aren’t sure of to obliterating cover from a mile away with the same weapon. Also it would be great for missile/anti-artillery defense; an automated system with a rifle scale phaser (or better if they can be made) could probably blow up incoming artillery shells and missiles.
Take that back! I am going to pretend to take enormous offense at any suggestion that I endorsed a non-lethal “weapon” of any stripe. I wrote less lethal on purpose, as it seems clear that any of RI’s phaser’s can kill. The setting that puts my 98-pound niece to sleep for half an hour is going to just get my adrenaline flowing, because I’m two and a half times her mass. The setting that puts me out for half an hour is going to put her in the hospital with one shot and kill her with two.
And somebody my size who’s high on PCP is going to require a shot that ordinarily is reserved for cougars.
That said, a moment’s thought may give you some reasons why – for practical self-defense motives – you, Oak, want to make sure you don’t accidentally have use the kill the orca setting, even if your phaser had a power cell capable of generating it.
Not true at all, unless you are a sociopath. An effective nonlethal weapon means that you don’t need to be nearly as careful about your targets. And it means you can say “sorry” to your wife when she wakes up instead of burying her.
Obvioulsy I’m not going to be using wide-beam, level a city block setting to shoot the crackhead breaking into my house. I damn sure am gonna use a setting that will permanently resolve the issue…and that ain’t any kind of stun. I’d like the “vaporize bad guy” setting, because The Druidess won’t like me splattering crackhead blood all over her nice clean walls. Granted, she would prefer I make a mess than allow crackhead intrusions. A very practical gal, my Druidess. One of many reasons I’m going to marry her.
Not necessarily. We’re talking about an entirely different kind of weapon.
A phaser can give me a 5 foot wide spread, no recoil, and take down a guy on PCP like swatting a fly. The fact that the guy will probably not die doesn’t mean the weapon isn’t more effective than a shotgun.
Absolutely true as I said. Maybe the stun thingy works. Maybe it doesn’t. Good old fashioned hollow points are proven effective if well placed–and I happen to be an excellent shot. If I am convinced that discharging a weapon is necessary to defend myself or my soon to be wife, then I am going to discharge a weapon that will permanently solve the problem–by blowing a large gaping hole in the middle of Bad Guy’s chest. I am not about to risk him shrugging off the stun, or waking up early and being pissed off.
The fact that the guy may or may not get up after some uncertain period of time makes it considerably less effective than a shotgun (though I prefer a pistol for home defense). If the guy’s aorta is now in several pieces scattered across my doorway, I know that bastard ain’t getting up.
How long, do you think, that lock-out would last? I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t an “overclock” hack available on the day the first locked-out phaser shipped.
I would want a phaser of no stripe. Stripes look stupid.
That long? I expect that at least three engineers at RI start working one up, separately, as soon as people start talking about it. One to prove that it can be done; one because he’s going to want it for himself; ane one because she’s bored.
But I also expect that possessing a phaser with the overclock hacked would be a criminal offense.
I know the OP says there’s no magic vaporizing going on, and I think it also says it’s a coherent energy beam, which I should think rules out the wide beam setting. Anyway, I think I can guarantee that you’re – YOU, Oakminster, specifically-- would not use the kill-an-elephant-with-one-bolt setting on a crack addict breaking into your house. It’s going to set the place on fire, and you and the Druidess are inside, and I understand it, even lawyers are allergic to flame. 
Also it’s wasteful, and you don’t know how many shots you’re going to need. You’re going to use the stun-a-lion setting, which will send any human to the hospital and may well kill them, but still leave you more shots in case the crackhead has friends.
Incidentally, I agree that the shotgun still has advantages (especially as I don’t agree that there’d be a wide-stream setting). As to whether the less-likely-lethal setting works, I think we can take it as a given that over a thousand pigs died testing it.
Well see, you are assuming I am going to buy a phaser to replace my perfectly reliable home defense system I unfortunately lost in that boating accident. Really not seeing any reason I would do that. While I [del]have[/del]…er…HAD a variety of weapons, the one by the bed [del]is[/del] WAS one of the simplest. Big pistol, double action revolver. All I would need to do is aim and pull the trigger. Predictable results will ensue.
No messing with this setting or that gizmo that I could easily screw up in the heat of battle. Simple, reliable, virtually foolproof, and effective.
Pens and pistols should be available to civilians. But the heavy weapon version would be military and industrial use only, same as high explosives.
I suspect that the measurably finite source of dilithium is going to price even the pen phasers in the high end of low to mid 5 figures.
Could buy a helluva lot of tasers, mace, & small arms for that kind of money.
Your average shaved ape should be allowed access to pens only. If you want higher levels, you must take a course, pass it, and receive an operator’s license. Heavy grade should be reserved for military, and industrial applications and manufactured in such a way as to make their use by civilians impractical.
I agree that a phaser is far greater in application than a gun, and that as such it is not protected under the second. It is a multi-purpose tool that can be used as weapon.
Except that the victim is likely to be her rather than some “crackhead”.
Not really; lasers at least can come in more shapes than a narrow beam, I recall reading an article years ago about a disk laser that produced a beam from its entire edge, and spherical lasers are theoretically possible. And depending how the phaser works perhaps you could move its lens-equivalent as it fired, scanning the beam over its target and producing an effective wide beam mode.
And it has occurred to me that given their small size and lack of recoil it wouldn’t be difficult to take ten or so pencil-phasers, mount them on a handle and wire them together as a homemade phaser gatling pistol. Rapidfire isn’t as good as wide beam but it’ll do.
I suppose asking you for a cite is a waste of time, as usual? That would be a cite that an experienced gun owner is somehow more likely to hit his wife…who would likely be behind him during a confrontation with a crackhead…than the crackhead in front of the shooter?
Can we trouble you for a cite on the more likely identity of the victim, and the different-shaped lasers bit?
Stun settings only.
In the former case I was simply pointing out that it is quite rare for people to try to break in when anyone is home. I’m not sure of the exact ratio between family members killed and intruders or where to get accurate data, the well is badly poisoned.
I’m looking for a mention of the laser, unfortunately that was a long time ago (the 80s or early 90s I think) and the existence of laser discs and some other entirely unrelated disc shaped laser (that emits the laser light from its top surface) makes searching for it difficult.
Can we attach these phasers to the heads of sharks?