BattleHall: IIRC, part of the reason for banning the use of all chemical weapons in combat, not just the lethal or “cruel” ones, is to prevent inadvertent escalation. In the heat of battle, if you suddenly come under a gas attack, it may be very hard to impossible to tell the difference between a lethal chemical agent and a non-lethal irritant, especially back in the days before sophisticated chemical sensors. As lethal chemical weapons are considered a Weapon of Mass Destruction and a de facto escalation, it would be expected that anyone attacked by them would reply in kind, either with their own “illegal” chemical weapons or other still-legal WMDs, like nuclear weapons.
Gemmabeta: Also, hollow-point and frangible bullets. Banned in war as cruel and excessive, but permitted in policing as they are less likely to shoot through a persona and hit someone standing behind them.
bolanrox: i mean they tried to ban shotguns and crossbows in warfare over the years.
stitics: Makes sense to me. In one situation, the next step is to kill you. In the other situation, the next step is to take you to jail…or even just let you go think about how inappropriate your actions have been.
RetardsAdvocate: Well, it’s not like the police will pepper spray or tear gas a crowd, *then mow them down with a machine gun.*
mrshatnertoyou: >Pepper spray is banned for use in war by Article I.5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the use of all riot control agents in warfare whether lethal or less-than-lethal.
Riots are hell.
TimeTraveller-: Next time you go rioting, make a small war declaration 24 hours before going to the street
dontknowhowtoprogram: You must consider that in large enough amounts it will still kill a person without proper protection. Imagine for a second that you are in a fox hole and a cloud of pepper spray wafts across the battlefield and settles in your position blinding you and making it harder and harder to breath. now it makes news that a chemical woepon was used to kill x faction. News is spread and one side decides to take it up a notch “well if the enemy is going to fight dirty then lets see how they like y chemical” Soon no rules of war or obeyed and the ground is poisoned and an errant change of wind direction ends up gassing a village or two. This is why pepper spray is not allowed.
superduperpooperman: “Pepper spray” used in a war would be massively more potent than the riot stuff. This isn’t the keychain shit you buy from a gas station
coinaco: Neil Degrasse Tyson: “The term chemical weapons is actually a misleading designation because all weapons are made of chemicals.”
redditjsb: “Rules of war” has always seemed like an oxymoron to me
cyrusm: Same’s true for hollow-point rounds.
I can go pick up a box at the hardware store and load them up for self-defense, but use them in international combat and it’s a war crime according to the Hague Convention.
Fun side benefit to expanding rounds, and one reason the police use them: Since it’s less likely for the bullet to exit at high velocity, there is much less chance for injury to bystanders from pass-through or ricochette! Plus, you put the target down more rapidly.
CamelCash007: Pepper Spray is also illegal in Denmark for Woman to use in self-defense.
missionbeach: I use lemon pepper spray. Once you spray a riot, it’s only good for about a week so we use any leftover on boneless chicken breasts.
derek3hunna: I always imagine a room full of terrorist when I see things like this
Dave: how can we better attack the enemy
Mark: we could drive trucks into them
Dave: good good
Jim: strap bombs to our chest and run at them
Dave: okay good how about something we haven’t tried before
Richard: ive got it we could use pepper spray to blind them!!
Dave, Jim, mark: GOD DAMMIT RICHARD FOR THE LAST TIME PEPPER SPRAY IS BANNED IN WAR WE CANT DO THAT
BasicLEDGrow: All weapons are made of chemicals.
Army0fMe: Well generally the point of war is to kill the other guy to achieve an objective, so less-than-lethal options aren’t really necessary or desirable.
On the same token, riot cops can’t exactly open fire on an unarmed crowd to get the survivors to disperse.