Netgun

Netguns are non-lethal weapons designed to fire a net which entangles the target. Netguns have a long history of being used to capture wildlife, without injury, for research purposes. A netgun is currently in development for less-than-lethal riot control.

Popular Culture

Netguns are becoming increasingly popular in both fiction and non-fiction settings, often seen as an "easy-fix" weapon for capturing a target without causing serious harm to it.

One notable example of a netgun is used in the Predator series of films, most notably "Predator 2" and "Alien vs. Predator". This version is somewhat lethal, as it tightens around the target and cuts them like razor wire. Other examples include the films "Total Recall" and "The Running Man", in which a netgun is used to capture the characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. In "Birds in a Truck", an episode of the Discovery Channel television series, "MythBusters", Jamie Hyneman constructs a jury-rigged netgun using PVC, an air tank, a fishing net, and some tennis balls in an attempt to capture pigeons. The netgun functioned as planned, but Jamie failed to catch any of the pigeons. Recently, a netgun was seen on the MTV television series, "Rob and Big", as a means of non-lethal home protection from unwanted intruders [http://byrev.net/tag/netgun/|] . After one was featured on "Rob and Big", internet searches for netguns drastically increasedFact|date=January 2008.

The term has lately been adopted for fantasy weapons used in imaginary or text-based combat. These fantasy weapons work in the same way as real-world netguns: an explosive charge or compressed air propels a weighted net toward a target. The net envelopes the target and immobilizes it.

External links

* http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=ct20040327112531981T620991&set_id=1
* http://www.codaenterprises.com/