Shape of things to come: Denver cops stocking up on pepperball guns; “crap cannons” too?

Via Jeralyn at TalkLeft, a munitions maker’s boastful press release has offered a glimpse into one kind of weaponry that will be in use when the Democratic National Convention takes place in Denver at the end of August: The Kentucky-based Security With Advanced Technology Inc (that’s right–SWAT) announced that it’s sold 88 Mark IV pistols and rifles modified to shoot pepper-spray-like balls to the city of Denver.

And Fox News notes that protesters in Denver are worried about a more esoteric pair of weapons making their way through the rumor mill there: the "Active Denial System," manufactured by Raytheon, which uses microwave rays (known in the trade as "pain rays") to create a burning sensation and thereby disperse crowds (video below); and the apparently mythic "Crap Cannon," aka Brown Note, which allegedly emits a super-low frequency that causes everyone within its range to lose control of their bowels and experience "involuntary gastro-intestinal motility," in the words of Dr. Roger Schwenke, who debunked the story of the crap cannon on the TV show MythBusters a few years ago. (Not that the theory is entirely wacked out: As an explainer piece at ABC of Australia’s site observes, "There are known effects of infrasound, depending on how loud the sound is — vibration of the chest wall, changes in respiratory rhythm, sensation of gagging, vibration of the visual fields and so on. It’s well known that infrasound of 4–6HZ will make the contents of the chest and abdomen vibrate in sympathy, while 3–6Hz will interfere with the normal motility of the stomach." So it seems there is still hope for the crap cannon, though maybe not this year.)

Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate: ADS (pain ray) promo video (2:50)