When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works

Home / News / Bad guy getting away? Shoot him with this DNA gun

Bad guy getting away? Shoot him with this DNA gun

That's right, DNA guns are here and they're thankfully non-lethal. And orange

Don’t let the orange colour scheme of this firearm put you off. It’s definitely not a toy. It’s actually a new gun produced in the UK that’s designed to fire non-lethal pellets of DNA at targets so that they can be identified later.

That’s right. No rubber bullets, no beanbags. Just little green pellets of synthetic DNA, which will leave a long-lasting biological mark on targets for weeks after exposure.

The DNA gun will be used by police to confirm or eliminate people from their involvement in a particular situation and will come in handy, for example, in situations where suspects are fleeing the scene of a crime.

The DNA gun is accurate to distances up to 40 metres and is completely non lethal – though it remains to be seen how effective the pellets are at tagging skin through clothing.

We’re holding out for immunisation crossbows. That should make next year’s flu shots a lot more fun.

[via The Verge]

You might also like

Apple churns record revenue as iOS device sales top 500m

Hide in plain sight with Stealth Wear anti-surveillance clothing

Stuff Office Cat’s Diary – 23/01/13

Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home