Armed Lifestyle - Issue 2 - June 2022

16
PEPPER BALL
PEPPERBALL
NON-LETHAL OPTIONS BY TRAMPAS SWANSON
Every day, 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, we look at two products offered by Pepper Ball
for not only 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 the
LIVE-X, 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 chemicalinduced
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. While
this is still a non-lethal option, the impact of the round on skin
will leave a deep red or purple welp and even damage an eye or
nose if a direct facial impact occurs.
The second option is called a VXR projectile. It is looks like a
semi-round paintball with a hollowed-out space in the rear much
like a black powder maxi-ball round and finned like a modern