THE FUTURE OF FIREARMS

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I’m certain there are engineers around the world investing much energy into the R&D of new firearm concepts. Over morning coffee this morning we debated what those might look like, you know, 25 years from now. The discussion went around and around the gamut of possible variables but all of us agreed on one thing, ammo needs rethinking. Conventional lead and powder bullets are costly and a constant source of stress in combat situations not to mention expensive to produce and purchase, so what would this future firearm shoot if not "ammo"? One suggestion was a gun resembling a portable wood chipper where you just fed in any debris you found lying around and it was spit out to deadly effect: however, accuracy would be an inevitable issue so that was quickly discarded. A second and rather cliched idea was an electrically charged gun that shot a bolt much like a stormtroopers blaster: but we all agreed the bolt of electricity would have to harness such extrordinary power that it'd likely pass through it’s target and everything else behind it, perhaps for perpetuity. And then a third design that seemed interesting was a nuclear powered fuser (utilizing a miniaturized reactor pack on the shooter's back) that forms balls of air (fused O2 molecules) and discharges them at pre-programmed speeds. Permanence of the “air balls” would depend on how much energy went into their making thus enabling long distance, midrange or rapid close up engagement at the flick of a switch. I reckon there'll always be a place for lead & powder (one day to be known as old school ammo) for hunting and sporting purposes, but militarily we all agreed conventional systems have their days numbered. Thoughts? ED

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