- Flash-ball
A flash-ball gun ("arme à léthalité atténuée", "attenuated lethality weapon") is a hand-held weapon intended mainly for use by police officers in riot situations as an alternative to lethal
firearm s orbaton round s (plastic bullet s). It was developed by French arms manufacturerVerney-Carron and is available in two versions. The super-pro version features vertically stacked barrels and is made from metal alloys, while the compact version is made from lightercomposite material s with the twin barrels side by side. Both versions of the weapon can be used to fire a variety of ammunition although a soft 44 mm rubber ball is the most common.According to the manufacturer's own publicity, the flash-ball's standard round packs the
stopping power of a .38 caliberhandgun but considerably less kinetic energy per sq. cm thus making it unlikely to penetrate the body of a normally clothed person even at ranges down to 7 meters. This said, varioushuman rights groups have expressed fears that the widespread deployment of such weapons could result in police being less likely to applynon-violent tactics when dealing with potentially dangerous situations. [ cite web|url=http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/fra-summary-eng|title=Amnesty International Report on France 2003]References
External links
* [http://www.flash-ball.com/ Official Site]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.