Variations on Captain Kirk's phaser, these guns deliver a temporary and completely reversible whammy. The thermal gun raises the target's body temperature to between 105 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit, creating an instant and incapacitating fever. The magnetophosphene gun achieves the same effect as a blow to the head--disorientation--without the accompanying pain.

Most details about these weapons, the products of a development effort sponsored by the Department of Justice, remain classified, including exactly what kind of beam or substance they emit. Sources speculate that the technologies involved may not meet the requirements of the Geneva Convention or the Supreme Court's Tennessee v. Gardner decision, which prohibits the use of lethal or invasive force against a suspect.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and Olin Ordnance in St. Petersburg, Florida, are working on a somewhat more prosaic stun gun. Livermore has turned its attention to the launcher itself, while Olin has tackled the rubber ammunition that the gun fires.

Because rubber ammunition can be fatal at short ranges, Livermore wants to find a way to control the force with which the bullet leaves the launcher so that it varies according to the distance of the target. Toward that end, the Livermore team is concocting a laser range finder and a microcontroller that can be mounted on a conventional gun or projectile launcher. The range finder determines how far away the target is from the launcher, and the microcontroller calculates the exact amount of force with which to propel the rubber bullet and then transmits the appropriate commands to the launcher. This set-up simplifies aiming, because the microcontroller helps the projectile arc through the air to the target.

Certain characteristics of Olin's rubber stun bullet help it to achieve the desired stun effect. At a certain distance from the target, it expands into a beanbag-like object, which slows its progress through the air, gives it a larger and more effective surface area, and keeps it from penetrating the target's skin.

Olin already produces a stun bullet that's used mainly to tag fleeing suspects. A one-inch-long, soft rubber cylinder filled with either green indelible ink or a dye that will show up only under ultraviolet light, it's fired by a conventional 12-gauge riot shotgun and explodes upon impact, marking the suspect's clothes and skin. At some ranges, the bullet also stuns the target upon impact.

James Bond fans may recall that in the 1987 film "The Living Daylights," 007 carried a gun that used pattern-recognition technology to restrict anyone but him from firing it. Although Sandia investigated many available technologies and did not pick up the idea for a first-candidate system from the film, Bond's gun existed only in the movies until Sandia invented it . Like Bond's gun, the Sandia system takes advantage of certain patterns that are unique to each person--similar to fingerprints. When you close your hand around something--a gun butt, for example--your hand creates a distinct pattern and shape. Sensors on the smart gun are programmed with the authorized user's patterns, and each time someone tries to fire the gun, the sensors automatically compare the programmed patterns to those of the person squeezing the trigger. The gun won't fire unless both patterns fit the profile.

Another system Sandia developed requires the authorized user to wear a radio transceiver while the gun carries a radio tag. The transceiver constantly sends out a signal to the gun's radio tag, which checks to make sure that the transceiver is within a certain range--say, a few inches--before it will allow the gun to fire.

LifeGuard consists of a sensor, a commercial computer, and state-of-the-art software that work together to track bullets traveling at sub- or supersonic speeds and to identify their origins in a matter of milliseconds. In tests, LifeGuard also detected the movement of mortar and 50-millimeter shells.

When connected to LifeGuard, DeadEye takes various measures to identify and incapacitate a shooter and to defend against gunfire. It can snap pictures of the shooter, fire back a nonlethal device, or even knock an artillery shell from the sky before it reaches its target, all in less than a half second.

A device now under development exploits and refines the crude effects of high-energy radio forces. This HERF gun aims high-energy radio frequencies at a specific target, overloading and disabling--temporarily or permanently--its communications, computer, and other electronic equipment. The HERF gun may be used in wartime to disrupt communications, interfere with enemy aircraft's avionics, and cause malfunctions in ground-based transportation.

While we don't recommend trying this at home, HERF guns can be--and have been--constructed with off-the-shelf technology available at Radio Shack for reasonable cost.

Rather than using an amplified signal as the HERF gun does, the electromagnetic pulse transformer (EMP/T) bomb creates an electromagnetic disturbance by setting off a massive explosion. This effect was first experienced after nuclear test blasts. The EMP/T (pronounced "empty") bomb knocks out all electronic equipment within range, rather than limiting its effects to its target. The technology may have already made its way out of the laboratory to the front lines: Sources told OMNI that the Navy used highly classified, nonnuclear EMP/T bombs during Desert Storm to destroy Iraqi electronic systems.

As with thermal and magnetophosphene guns, calmative agents may violate various weapons conventions and have come under fire by human-rights advocates.

Among the problems facing researchers investigating this technology is how to target and focus the waves so that they don't incapacitate everyone in the vicinity.

All other details remain classified.

Dazzlers mimic the effects of flash bangs, except that they're housed in rugged, insulated containers that prevent burns.

A third technology under development by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, uses pulsed light, like strobe lights in a disco, to blind and disorient without the explosive component of dazzlers and flash bangs. The researchers are also working on sophisticated goggles that use liquid crystal display (LCD) technology to darken and lighten the eyepieces as the light pulses on and off, shielding whoever is using the technology from its effects. Reportedly, they've hit a stumbling block in trying to get the LCDs to react quickly enough.

Although it didn't make the news, this nonlethal weapon came surprisingly close to playing a part in ending the FBI's standoff last spring with the Freemen in Montana. During the standoff, the FBI asked M2 for a nonlethal capable of neutralizing a group of people with minimum force at a range of 3,000 feet.

In the scenario drawn up by M2, the dark brown foam, propelled by a mixture of water and compressed air, would have been sprayed in layers over windows and doorways, where it would have obstructed visibility and access. Law enforcement officials would then have lobbed tear-gas canisters and/or stun grenades into the compound to force the Freemen out of the foamed buildings and the compound itself through one doorway left free and clear.

On their way out, the Freemen would have run into the protein foam, which would not only have slowed them down but would also have caused disorientation and clogged the vents in gas masks that they might have been wearing, forcing them to remove the masks in order to breathe.

According to our sources, the Freemen surrendered before implementation of this scenario could occur.

M2 Technologies (San Diego, CA) has also been exploring the possibility of blending OC with protein foam.