• The federal government asked the Washington, D.C. National Guard if it had nonlethal weapons to use during this summer's protests in our nation's capital, according to an NPR report.
• The Active Denial System (ADS) produces scalding heat, while the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) bombards targets with painful, intense sound.
• The weapons, although specifically designed not to kill or permanently injure, would have been a huge escalation of the protests. Some have described them as “too scary to use.”

The U.S. government sought to have two scary, albeit non-lethal weapons on hand during this summer’s protests in Washington, D.C., according to an NPR report.

The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) and Active Denial System (ADS) are designed to produce instantaneous pain, causing crowds to disperse and allowing authorities to reimpose order. Experts, however, claim the weapons are “too scary to use,” and people can become too incapacitated to move out of the pain zone.

U.S. military authorities asked the District of Columbia National Guard if it had the LRAD and ADS in its inventory, but it did not. The authorities made the request on June 1, 2020, the same day armored police tear-gassed protestors in Lafayette Square—described by a Guard officer as “peaceful”—to clear the way for President Donald Trump's photo opportunity in front of a church.