From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ I found the following article in OMNI magazine, February 1995 issue, page 31. It is in the section called CONTINUUM. I didn't see the story on Day One, or whatever the "news" broadcast was, but thought this article made some "interesting" statements. It talks about more than just the "smart guns", but it was easier just to include the entire article rather than just parts of it. Authors name is at the bottom. OMNI Magazine February 1995, page 31. CONTINUUM Future Firearms: New weapons take law enforcement into the twenty-first century. Plus, a push for smaller people, and the invasion of the fire ants. "Police officers are still equipped much as Wyatt Earp was in the nineteenth century," says David Boyd, director of the Science and Technology Division of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). As head of NIJ's Less-Than-Lethal (LTL) technology program, Boyd is equipping police officers for the twenty-first century by designing Robocop-like tools and weapons with an eye to both safety and effectiveness. Though it sounds a bit like a Hollywood comic device for chase scenes, sticky foam may prove to be a valuable addition to the arsenals of real world crimefighters. "Sticky foam stops a suspect because everything it touches becomes stuck to it, immobilizing the subject's legs and arms like contact cement," says Tom Goolsby, senior member of the technical staff of the Access Delay Technology Department at Sandia National Laboratories. The foam is stored as a pressurized liquid containing Freon, rubbers, resins, oils, and stabilizers which, when exposed to atmospheric pressure, turns into foam. The process expands the 1 1/2 liters of sticky, rubbery materials into more than 10 gallons of foam with a density of cotton balls. Goolsby says one potential use of the device might be in dealing with difficult prisoners. Presently, prison guards use body armor and riot shields to protect themselves from violent and reluctant prisoners during transport from cell to cell or prison to prison. With sticky foam, the foam can be shot through the food slot with no injury to the guards. Other possible uses might include riot control and added protection for high-security areas. Sticky foam might help to capture intruders by blocking exits with large bags filled with the substance through which an intruder would have to pass in order to escape. In so doing, the suspect would have to break the bag. The sticky foam inside would do the rest. So far, the two major challenges to this technology seem to be environmental and medical. Researchers must find a way to effectively clean up the mess that sticky foam makes and determine if the compound poses any serious health risks to both users and targets. Another promising idea for law enforcement is the development of smart guns which would employ user-recognizing devices to eliminate the possibility of an unauthorized user getting control of a police officer's firearm. "In the next two years, we will develop a list of as many technologies as possible to choose from, prioritize them with a ranking scheme, and build working models of at least two," says Douglas R. Weiss, project manager at Sandia, under contract for the NIJ. One model, for instance, uses a capacitive proximity sensor embedded in the gun. As the hand is wrapped around it, an electric field discriminates between a large and a small hand. Other biometric (the study of unique attributes of the body) devices, like voice recognition, retinal scans, and finger and palm prints, may also be developed. The advantage of such devices is obvious: Sensors ensure that the person who fires the weapon is the person authorized to use it. Smart gun technologies are based on the simple premise that the more the gun can "know", the more effective it is as a weapon. Electronic tags similar to bar codes on library books or the ubiquitous plastic tags in clothing stores, for example, could be worn by undercover police who would be otherwise unrecognizable. "If an officer wears a tag on the body in a ring, watch, uniform button, or belt buckle, a reader in the firearm can scan the tag for the identity either using magnetics, electronics, or radio frequency," says Weiss. It might just be enough to save undercover agents from the dangers of friendly fire. Weiss stresses that close attention is being paid to surety--reliability, safety, security, and use control of the smart gun. It must work when officers want it to, and not work when they don't want it to. He likens the seriousness of this task to the nearly identical design problems inherent in nuclear weapons: They have to be reliable, but must also be absolutely safe until ready for use. After safety, cost is a big concern. Because this technology is so expensive to develop, Boyd is planning to expand into the civilian market. But there are better reasons for targeting civilian firearms owners. Smart guns might, for example, greatly reduce the number of in-home firearm thefts. More importantly, many domestic homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings could be prevented with a smart gun. Whatever the technologies are, Weiss plans to design retrofitable devices and to make them easily affordable by all firearm owners. New technologies may not be the solution to increased violence and crime, but safer weapons is a good place to start. - CAROL SILVERMAN SAUNDERS ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer. All files are ZIP archives for fast download. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)