How Do "Laughing Bullets" Work?

The Pentagon, specifically the U.S. Defense Department, through The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, developed what is probably the weirdest, funniest and most out-of-this-world weapon.

Well, it's not exactly a weapon, it's a bullet, as David Hambling, New Scientist correspondent, puts it. Now really, we all know DARPA has lots of money and lots of crazy ideas to spend it on, but this has got to be the most interesting one so far.

After recently issuing a request for proposals to develop a new bulletproof shield that would be invisible when looking from the outside, would self heal and which would allow the soldier behind it to shoot through it, but in the same time would stop the bullets coming in the opposite direction, DARPA does it again.

These guys make me laugh harder than "Myth Busters" and "Brainiac" combined. "Laugh" is the main idea here, since the new discovery is a laughing bullet. No, the bullet itself won't be laughing while ejecting from the barrel of a gun; instead, it will make the enemies laugh.

Yeap, these bullets, developed under a 2002 project, are called Smart Non-Lethal Bullets, and carry a chemical agent, essentially laughing gas that would be delivered after the bullet collapses on impact. This ammo would be used in riots and general conflicts, to disperse angry mobs and fighting gangs, by leaving them "battered and bruised but also, oddly, laughing".

Now, try to imagine a gang of Hooligans laughing with tears while they beat the cops with baseball bats, wooden sticks and metal poles. That would be hilarious, and not for the cops. "Essentially this non-lethal weapon will allow the military to "punch," slap and hit an individual repetitively from a distance and in a manner, which provides no injuries", claims the original proposal.

Or not. But if we take into account the fact that the Pentagon awarded $99,899 for the first phase of development, this means that these guys saw it as "no laughing matter," so to speak. Thankfully, the project never went any further.

I wonder why. It was funny, wasn't it?