New form of gun violence: Pellet guns

                            

What is a pellet:

                                    A pellet is basically a projectile being fired from an air gun. These pellets are different from bullets and shots as these pellets loaded air guns have very low pressure.

Why so much fuss:

                                    Pellet guns are regularly used in air gun in shooting, controlling pests and hunting but now days they are breaking the internet for different reason altogether. These pellet guns are now being used by police or military forces to control the crowd along with tear gas, water cannon, pepper spray etc. In past few days there has been an outrage on internet over the use of these guns on civilians.

How do they work?

                          The pellets may be flat, domed or pointed in shape with a thin waist. These pellets are generally light in weight being made up of lead or lead alloys, although non toxic options are also available. These pellets are designed to work under subsonic speeds. Due to their light weight the pellets may tumble sometimes and if fired with high velocities may even burst midway. To prevent this many modification in the design and weight of these pellets has been done. So the heavy pellets have more speed, more accuracy and less tumbling.

Why are they dangerous?

                        These pellets are considered non lethal and generally injures a person causing severe pain. These pellets can penetrate through soft tissues and can affect a person badly. The organs like eyes are affected the most. There have been a number of cases in which the victims have lost their eye sight partially or completely. They are very effective in short range and can be lethal if fired from close distances. Normally the pellets are round in shape but pellets with sharp edges have also been spotted and these sharp edged pellets are far more dangerous as they have more penetration power that may affect the vital internal organs.

These pellets are fired in large number at once. Due to the light weight and tumbling nature they do not follow a particular path and that is where they are even more dangerous causing mass injuries.

When was it first used?

                                    It was first used in year 2010 by state police to counteract the stone pelting protests. More than hundred people were injured during the use of this non lethal weapon. Since then the voices are being raised against the use of these pellets.

Number of pellets fired at once:

                                    According to officials hundreds of pellets resembling ball bearings can be filled in a cartridge. On firing the cartridge bursts spreading these pellets everywhere.

Recovery and treatment:

                                    As large numbers of pellets are fired at once so a person got injured has lot of tiny pellets inside the body unlike lesser number in case of bullets. So it makes very hard and complicated for doctor to treat the patient. The first thing is to remove all the pellets from the body as it is done in most of the cases but it is not that simple when eyes are affected. In these cases removal of all pellets gets difficult sometimes resulting in permanent loss of vision or impaired vision. According to doctors there were very less number of patients whose vision had been restored completely.

Although the weapon has always termed as non lethal but still is very dangerous and even government officials are now seeking some alternative to control the masses.