PMCI - March - 2020

pmcimagazine.com
LESS THAN LETHAL
PEPPERBALL NON-LETHAL OPTIONS
EVERY DAY, ALL OVER THE WORLD, MILITARY SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUPS, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND
CIVILIANS ALIKE ENCOUNTER CRITICAL SITUATIONS REQUIRING IMMEDIATE ACTION. OFTEN, THESE
SITUATIONS ARE FORCED TO BECOME DRAWN OUT AND END IN QUESTIONABLE LETHAL FORCE DUE TO LACK
OF AVAILABLE OPTIONS. WHILE TASERS AND PEPPER SPRAY COULD HAVE ELIMINATED THE THREAT EARLIER,
FACTORS SUCH AS DISTANCE AND THE INABILITY TO DEPLOY FROM PROPER COVER PREVENT THESE OPTIONS
FROM COMING INTO PLAY EARLY IN THE REACTIONARY GAME PLAN. FORTUNATELY, NON-LETHAL PAYLOAD
DELIVERY OPTIONS FROM A COMPANY BY THE NAME OF PEPPER BALL, HAVE BEEN MAKING THEIR WAY ONTO
THE BATTLEFIELDS AND STREETS OF SOME OF THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST AREAS TO HELP.
In this issue, PMCI looks at two relatively new
products offered by this company for not only
military and law enforcement but civilians alike.
These models are the Flashlauncher and the
Tactical Compact Pistol or TCP for short. First, to
understand the devices, we must understand the
munitions in which the devices are built to launch.
PEPPER BALL
The term Pepper Ball is a trademarked term for
two similar individual types of payload delivering munitions.
The first is a round .68 caliber projectile very similar in
external composition as the average paintball but inside,
contains a wide range of options from PAVA pepper powder
to simple water marking loads for training. The premise of
the Pepper Ball system is to launch munitions such as those
containing irritant powders via disposable compressed CO2
cartridges over a distance onto targets such as humans to
deter unlawful behavior or an escape an unsafe situation.
This process depends on chemesthetic shock in order to
manifest its desired effect. Chemesthesis is defined as the
chemical sensitivity of the skin and mucous membranes.
These sensations arise when chemical compounds activate
receptors associated with other senses that mediate pain,
touch, and thermal perception. These chemical-induced
reactions do not fit into the traditional sense categories
of taste and smell. Basically, when a round containing
something such as CS powder strikes a human, the shock of
impact first causes an extremely noticeable pain to the skin
without puncturing it while at the same time, opening up
the pores to become more susceptible to the irritant powder
delivered. Such pain normally causes increased heart rate
and breathing which enhances the bodies acceptance of the
powder and increasing its effects.
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