Shooting with Ball State's Finest Part 1

As a member of the Ball State Police Department Citizen's Police Academy, we had the opportunity this past Sunday to view different weapons and use them. There were two groups and my group viewed and handled non-lethal weapons first. We were able to see how a stun gun works, a high powered paint ball gun is used, and a single shot "defensive" weapon. The target was a normal cut out of a person's top half stapled onto 3/4 quarter inch plywood. The stun gun's prongs did penetrate through the wood. The high powered paint ball gun is twice as strong as a standard paint ball gun and they use this for subjects to may be suicidal or may have a hostage and they use this weapon to make non lethal shots at the suspect. They use capsules that have baby powder and one with pepper power, which is the extract from a pepper. The last non-lethal weapon was the single shot weapon. Its design looks like a M79 grenade launcher http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/M79_afmil.jpg. It can be used in riot situations or like the last example a person that is suicidal or has a hostage. The round in about 1 inch in diameter but left a hole in the plywood about 3 inches, very strong. I did have the opportunity to fire this weapon and the amount of force that just left your hand is amazing, and one of your ears may not be hearing much for a few seconds later. Part 2 will discuss the lethal side of the weapons that were demonstrated this past Sunday.