The Concerns of Non-Lethal Weapons

In this Stephen Coleman keynote the speaker discusses the moral concerns regarding arming military personnel with non-lethal weapons. Often regarded as a better alternative towards firearms, non-lethal weapons present a new group of violence and abuse-related incidents.

The Senior Lecturer of Ethics and Leadership discusses the different types of training given to the police versus the military. While police officers are training to deescalate a situation, military officers who are trained for war are encouraged to immediately engage in violence when a situation becomes dangerous. Looking at various statistics, Coleman notes that when police officers are given non-lethal weapons, the rate of when those weapons were used rose dramatically.

While the popular belief is that "well no one was killed," it does give rise to the possibility for abuse and brutality. If this was the case with police, it begs the questions of what can we expect to see if military officers were given non-lethal weapons?