Editing Non-lethal weapon (section)

===Military===
[[File:Tazer use on US Army soliders.jpg|thumb|Demonstration of the use of a Taser gun on US military personnel. The device was originally developed for use by civilian police.]]

In the past, military and police faced with undesirable escalation of conflict had few acceptable options. Military personnel guarding embassies often found themselves restricted to carrying unloaded weapons. National guards or policing forces charged with quelling [[riot]]s were able to use only [[Baton (law enforcement)|baton]]s or similar club-like weapons, or [[bayonet]] or [[sword]] charges, or fire [[live ammunition]] at crowds. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Non-lethality Policy Review Group at U.S. Global Strategy Council<ref>[http://www.m2tech.us/images/upload/Nonlethality-A%20Global%20Strategy.pdf Nonlethality: A Global Strategy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305103649/http://www.m2tech.us/images/upload/Nonlethality-A%20Global%20Strategy.pdf |date=2012-03-05 }}</ref> in Washington and other independent [[think tank]]s around the world called for a concerted effort to develop weapons that were more life-conserving, environmentally friendly, and fiscally responsible than weapons available at that time.<ref>''War and Anti-War'', [[Alvin Toffler]] and Heidi Toffler, Little, Brown (1993), Chapter 15, p.125–136.</ref> The U.S. Congress and other governments agreed and began an organized development of non-lethal weapons to provide a range of options between talking and shooting.

Recognizing the need to limit the escalation of force, research and development of a range of non-lethal weapons has since been undertaken internationally by governments and weapons manufacturers to fill the need for such weapons. Some non-lethal weapons may provide more effective riot control than firearms, truncheons or bayonets with less risk of loss of life or serious injury. Before the general availability of early military non-lethal weapons in the mid 1990s, war-fighters had few or no casualty-limiting options for the employment of scalable force and were continually at risk whenever lethal force was prohibited during sensitive missions.

In 2001, the [[United States Marine Corps]] revealed its development of a less-than-lethal energy weapon called the [[Active Denial System]], a focused high frequency microwave device said to be capable of heating all living matter in the target area rapidly and continuously for the duration of the beam, causing transient intolerable [[pain]] but no lasting damage. The skin temperature of a person subjected to this weapon can jump to approximately {{convert|130|°F|°C}} in as little as 2 seconds depending on the skin's starting temperature. The system is nonlethal (the penetration of the beam into human skin is only a few millimeters).<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/04/pain_ray_injure/|title=Pain Ray Injures Airman|magazine=Wired|first=Noah|last=Shachtman|date=2007-04-06}}</ref>

In 2004, author Jon Ronson cited an unclassified military report titled "Non-Lethal Weapons: Terms and References"<ref>{{cite book
  | last =Ronson
  | first =Jon
  | title =The Men Who Stare at Goats
  | publisher =[[Simon & Schuster]]
  | year =2005
  | page =[https://archive.org/details/menwhostareatgoa00rons_0/page/259 259]
  | url =https://archive.org/details/menwhostareatgoa00rons_0/page/259
  | isbn =0-7432-4192-4
  | access-date =2007-08-28
  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zarc.com/english/non-lethal_weapons/nlt-usaf.html |title=USAF Institute for National Security Studies: Non-Lethal Weapons: Terms and References |access-date=2010-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304191858/http://www.zarc.com/english/non-lethal_weapons/nlt-usaf.html |archive-date=2010-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 21 acoustic weapons were listed, in various stages of development, including the Infrasound ("Very low-frequency sound which can travel long distances and easily penetrate most buildings and vehicles ... biophysical effects are projected to be: nausea, loss of bowels, disorientation, vomiting, potential internal organ damage or death may occur. Superior to ultrasound...)", however no such effects had been achieved {{As of|2002|lc=on}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2002/March/Pages/Acoustic-Energy4112.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719122933/http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2002/March/Pages/Acoustic-Energy4112.aspx|url-status=dead|title=''National Defense Magazine''|archivedate=July 19, 2010}}</ref>

In 2010, the ''Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Non-Lethal Weapons Reference Book'' was created. The weapons in this book are currently in development.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://publicintelligence.net/dod-non-lethal-weapons-2011/|title=(U//FOUO) DoD Non-Lethal Weapons Reference Book 2011 - Public Intelligence|date=27 December 2011 }}</ref>