The Ferguson Police Are Testing the ‘Second Chance Gun’

On YouTube, CNN’s report has been watched more than a million times in one week, far ahead of all the other videos posted by the channel in the last few days. Since the beginning of February, the Ferguson, Missouri police made regrettably famous by the death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 are testing a new device, called the “the alternative” and already nicknamed “the second chance gun.”*

The idea is simple: Faced with a threat that makes him draw his weapon, the police officer has three seconds to attach a type of prosthesis on the barrel before shooting. The orange plastic object acts like an airbag, explains its creator, Christian Ellis. The bullet lodges itself in a larger projectile, its speed is reduced by four-fifths and the risk of penetration of the body is reduced. The idea is to neutralize while avoiding killing.

This transformation of a lethal weapon to a nonlethal weapon is both relative – there’s still a good chance the bullet could kill, depending on the distance and the part of the body hit – and temporary. As soon as the first bullet leaves the barrel, the device pops off and leaves the way clear for the officer who wants to shoot again.

After Ferguson, Less-Lethal Weapons?

At this point, Ferguson is the only police force that is trying out this tool in the United States. Five officers (out of 55) have received the training given by the company Alternative Ballistics. “It’s something we’re testing for ourselves and seeing if this is even something feasible or reasonable to use for law enforcement officers,” declares the mayor, Jason Knowles, to CNN. Especially since the gadget isn’t expensive: $45 (40 euros).

According to the local newspaper UT San Diego, which cites Christian Ellis, “[t]wo other departments, one in Ohio and one in California,” are going to follow the same training. In all, “[m]ore than 50 departments across the country and 17 international agencies have requested a demonstration.”

An enthusiastic Huffington Post talks of “an invention that could resolve the problem of police brutality in the United States,”* since it would respond to the absence of an intermediary means of force. Alternative Ballistics presents its invention as the “‘missing link’ between lethal force and less-lethal force.”

We should nevertheless qualify the selling points of the firm. All the videos show the tester in an “ideal” situation: Faced with an aggressor armed with a knife (not a firearm), at a good distance, he has the time to choose how to respond and to place the gadget on the barrel of his gun.

As L’Express stresses, these are almost laboratory conditions. “It remains to be seen if the device is effective in real situations. It hasn’t, at the present time, been tested on a human being. We’ll have to wait, then, for the first pieces of feedback to judge its suitability.”

An Additional Way

Whether this test proves to be conclusive or not, it is symptomatic of the continuous questioning of the recent episodes of deadly police violence in the United States. The Washington Post reminds us that police officers already have several weapons that are supposed to be “nonlethal”:

– the Taser (which has killed 60 people in the United States, according to the company that markets it; closer to 500, according to Amnesty International)

– bean-bag-loaded shotguns

– pepper-filled pellets

– rubber-coated bullets

– stun grenades

The “second chance gun” would simply offer another possibility, in certain limited situations. But more questions remain open:

– Would police, knowing their first bullets from here on out would be “nonlethal,” be led to draw their weapons more quickly?

– Would the officer who shot Tamir Rice – a 12-year-old who was playing with a toy gun – in Cleveland in November having barely gotten out of his car, have taken the pains to affix the tool to his service weapon?

– In the case of Michael Brown, hit by six bullets, including two in the head, would this device have done any good, given that it was the final bullet that proved to be the one that killed him?

It’s hard to believe that this invention will do anything more than keep the wheels of business moving.

* Editor’s Note: The original quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.