Why are Slug throwers C but Las Pistols are D Legality?

[Akalabeth]

A pistol's a pistol. What's the difference?

I can understand needlers being restricted or SMGs or maybe Pulse Pistols and so forth but a slug and a laser will kill you just the same.

Hell even Vibroblades are C

[Maelwys]

Maybe there's no way to accurately determine if a pistol is the cause of a wound? If it was harder for forensics to determine if a laser pistol caused a wound, then that might be a good reason for their higher legality.

[Mendou]

Because a laser pistol doesn't make the loud "bang" which gets everyone's attention when you assassinate someone, nor does it leave a telltale slug with unique markings from being fired so the murder weapon can be identified.

[Akalabeth]

Yeah, I suppose that makes sense given the silencer is D too.

[doulos05]

But slug throwers can be silenced, where at lasers will always make a sound which cannot be silenced because it is caused by the air being ionized.

[Akalabeth]

But slug throwers can be silenced, where at lasers will always make a sound which cannot be silenced because it is caused by the air being ionized.

Yeah but the silencers for slug throwers are rated legality D which is the same as the las pistols. In other words, you can't get a silenced ballistic pistol at legality C.

Not sure about lasers but I assume the sound would be less than say an autopistol regardless.

[guardiandashi]

its the difference between the "series 4 deatomizer" and the noisy cricket (aka midget cricket)

now which gun would you rather carrry :p

oh there was a comment in one of the mib novels that j was not using the noisy cricket correctly

[Random]

There is also a big effective range difference between slug throwers and lasers to take into account.  The standard auto-pistol has half the range of the standard laser pistol.  And then there is the social factor, those in power don't want the plebs running around with snazzy laser pistols even if they can afford it.   

[dieffenbachj]

Lasers start fires which can get out of control and destroy cities. Pistols do not.
Lasers leave scorch marks. Pistols leave bullets with serial numbers imprinted on them, and can often be matched to guns regardless of that.
Lasers can be plugged into wall sockets. Pistols require you to go to stores to purchase ammo and powder, leaving a paper trail.
Modern lasers are 600 years old. Pistols have been around for nearly 2,000 years. Modern lasers require factories. Pistols can be home-made by any dedicated technician.
It is more difficult to make an object more restricted than it is to make it less restricted. Pistols have had nearly 2,000 years to have one generation of politicians make them easier to acquire, only to have the next generation struggle an up-hill battle to make them harder to acquire again. Lasers, having a much shorter history, do not have this problem: there's been a much smaller span of time for politicians to lower their legal rating.

Lasers are in low demand. Though cool, they are expensive, difficult to maintain, don't have a nostalgic classy feel and are difficult to aim due to their instantaneous, invisible beam. Therefore, there's not a very large lobby pushing to have them made more acquirable.

Pistols, on the other hand, are cheap, easy to maintain, and popular. Therefore, even if politicians want them outlawed, there's simply too large of a voting/gun-toting lobby to take those gun rights away.

Just my $0.02

[Fallen_Raven]

Laser pistols are also a mechwarrior/elite soldier weapon. That would make them military hardware, which most governments are going to try and keep restricted. And with the constant demand of the Sucession Wars (and their sucessors), availability of laser pistols would be limited, which in turn means that few people would push to get them legalized since there aren't many to buy anyway. If there isn't that much difference for what you're using it for, why wouldn't you buy the one that's cheaper and easier to get ahold of?

[Ferrit]

I'd also expect that body armour has role to play in this: it's much easier/cheaper for law enforcement to have something that can stop a slug thrower's bullet than a laser.

[TTUPhoenix]

My first thought is mainly ammo.  Who cares if someone buys a gun if they can't get ammunition for it?  Without bullets, a gun is just an oddly-shaped and poorly-weighted club.  A laser pistol, however, will accept a standard power pack available at your local Quick-E-Mart for a few bucks and can be charged off a wall outlet.

[Akalabeth]

Eh . . . yeah I'll just go with the "laser pistols are stealthy" reason myself. Makes sense enough.

The rest are interesting but I can't see them impacting legality.


1. Ammunition is a non-factor because it's the gun that's the important bit. I suspect that it's easy to walk into a store and buy some bullets with printed currency without leaving a trail.
2. Re: Body armour, Vibroblades are also C legality and can cut through ANY personal armour (save maybe Battlearmour).
3. Ability to make laser pistols is a non-issue, there's a separate tech column for a reason.
4. I don't really buy the low-demand argument either, people with money want fancy toys.



But the silenced nature of a laser (or at least, less conspicuous when fired?), and the longer effective range make more sense in restricting it's availability.

Either way thanks for the input everyone. Even if I don't necessarily agree with all of the ideas :D

[Nine_Iron88]

Yeah, I suppose that makes sense given the silencer 'suppressor' is D too.

Sorry, come from a firearm background and that always drives me nuts... and now I see the entire thread is riddled with it!  Ahhh!  [another pev is on COD:Black Ops, they say 'clip' instead of magazine...]

Pistols leave bullets with serial numbers imprinted on them, and can often be matched to guns regardless of that.
Pistols require you to go to stores to purchase ammo and powder, leaving a paper trail.

I'd say the first line is dependent upon what your bullet strikes and also the type of round.  Hollow points will break into many fragments, and frangible rounds are even worse while still deadly.  The best being a 12ga. w/bird or buck shot...  good luck running forensics on that.  You may be able to tell what caliber the round is, but I've seen some bullets mashed against ceramic body armor and it would have given someone a month of grief to try and run ballistics off of it...

Second line, what about those who hand-load?  They'd still have to purchase component pieces but it'd be pretty easy to source multiple vendors so there is no easy paper trail.


For my own thought?  I'd say its collateral damage.  While many calibers have the potential to travel through multiple strike surfaces, you can limit this by specialized ammo; hollow point, soft point etc.   What will stop that laser from going through your targets chest, and the 6 bar patrons behind him?  At least without body armor of some type or walls to diffuse the beam.  But just normal people?  We're pretty soft and water based, a laser will burn clean through and then some I'd imagine.  Someone already mentioned the fires a laser could start too.

All IMHO of course – I’m no physics major so I could be wrong.

[Nebfer]

Well Fluff wise a B-tech laser pistol can be out right nasty.
In Tactics of duty a laser pistol was stated as having a yield per shot of 100 kilojoules (or 20g of TNT, both are stated).
Others are capable of blowing your brains out of your skull, as it cooks it.

Laser Rifles can slam you into a wall, as it vaporizes part of your body (which throws you into the wall)...

Would you want people have access to this kind of power?