Valencia, California -- Foam guns are nothing new in the foam business. And it seems possible that quite a lot of sprayers may at some time have idly thought that a foam sprayer could be used as a sort of weapon.
Well they were right.
An episode of CBS TV show "Flashpoint" about a Toronto police department's Swat team, featured a gadget, the "Slug Gun," that fired foam at the hand of someone about to fire a weapon, immobilising the fingers by encasing the hand in rigid foam.
This device was described by Flashpoint executive producer Bill Mustos in an interview with online magazine IF (www.ifmagazine.com)'s Abbie Bernstein. The gun was developed, but never commercialised, according to Mustos.
"It existed, it was test-marketed. It was getting ready to be put out into the field with Swat teams, when in some of their testing, they discovered that if, instead of hitting your hand, I hit your face and the foam hardened around your face, you would be asphyxiated and die," Mustos told Bernstein.
"So a gadget that was very cool and interesting and almost ready for use out in the field ... got pulled at the last minute. We chose to use it on our show, because it was kind of revealing of the leading-edge technology that is almost there for Swat teams."
Of course, as spray foamers know well, aiming the foam accurately is crucial.
Bernstein commented that in fiction: "because you have the gift of writing where the shots land, your Swat team people can avoid shooting spray foam onto people's faces." Mustos, agreed. "That's right. They have impeccable aim!"
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