Electromagnetic Railgun Is the Scariest Super Weapon Since the Atomic Bomb (VIDEO)

My internet is being a snot today, so I can't watch these videos, but on the topic at large...

Yes, it is horrible when we have to develop these kinds of weapons. But we are not the only ones doing it. Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear nation. They may already have the technology to make nukes. And you know for sure that those nukes are going to be pointed at us.

This is an argument that will never be solved, but look at it this way: it is the 2nd Amendment, only on a global scale. You can make all the gun laws you want, take the guns out of every law-abiding citizen, but that's not going to stop the bad guys and the gangs from getting them. The only *real* way to deter those bad guys from using their guns is for you to have a bigger one.

Also, yes, the collateral damage is horrific - I know the humanity lost at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was tragic - but... those that have weapons aimed at us don't care about that. Given a good enough reason (we exist - for some, that's enough), they will launch an attack. Which do you prefer? Sitting here debating our fate, or having a bigger, badder gun that might head them off?

Frankly, I'm all for continuing the debate - as long as I've got the bigger, badder gun. Because someday we might solve it, but only when those who want us dead are willing to come to the table. And no, I don't trust them enough to put mine down first.

I'm thankful for the atomic bomb. Why? Because of that arms race I now get electricity at my home from that technology.... Called nuclear power plant. What good can come of this? That has yet to be seen, but, better batting cages maybe? Faster transportation? New way to send messages -forget email, snail mail, texts, try railgun mail! :)

Fat Man and Little Boy still haunt the hills around my home....

"Horrifying. It just makes me wonder what good can ever come from creating a weapon of mass destruction." How is a rail gun a weapon of mass destruction? It's essentially an upgraded cannon, good for hitting precision targets at extremely long range pretty much the opposite of a WMD which indiscriminately hits everything in a large area. If we are going to be spending money on weapons development this is exactly the sort of thing we should be working on.

Not to mention neither of those are necessarily the most terrifying. Two scientists figured out decades ago that you can create sound weapons that will liquify your insides after causing you intense agony for minutes on end and released that information to the military. They had to turn around immediately and try to figure out how to make a shield against it because 'holy fuck' they just created one of the worst weapons they possibly could have. More enticing for humans to use because it leaves infrastructure intact, it just kills the humans.

I think the author is hyperventilating. The railgun is not only old technology, it's also not a bomb. It's a gun. It doesn't explode, it punches holes in things. Like large warships and concrete bunkers. It's not a particularly effective weapon against people (i.e. cities). I'm much more worried about lost Russian "suitcase nukes" or some bunch of crazies getting their hands on nuclear waste and making a "dirty bomb." I lived through the Cuban missile crisis as a kid in Los Angeles, with the sirens, the duck and cover drills, and all that fun stuff. I had nightmares from it for years afterwards. This fancy popgun isn't going to give me nightmares.

"It just makes me wonder what good can ever come from creating a weapon of mass destruction." Japan stopped killing thousands of Pacific Rim inhabitants, stopped raping Chinese women, stopped killing Chinese civilians, stopped torpedoing our ships, stopped killing our military and civilian personnel. It help convince Germany that we meant business on that front too. Then later during the Cold War, it insured that you are now writing this diatribe in English instead of Russian. It gave you nuclear reactors making electricity cheap. Because of that, it effectively gave you the Internet, by the cheap energy allowing scientists to communicate more effectively. Someday it may even save the species, because at this point, it is the only thing powerful enough to turn a threatening asteroid or comet away from killing us all. Yes, it's important, but you have to drop the myopic world view to see it.