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The Anti-Riot Tangle Gun 7 was a crowd-control snare rifle manufactured by Merr-Sonn Munitions, Inc. for use by the Galactic Empire. The gun fired a pellet that, when exposed to air, explosively expanded into a multi-meter-wide webbed net that enveloped its victim and then shrank, thus immobilizing the target. Sometimes the webbing contracted too tightly, causing the victim to suffocate and die.
Description
The Anti-Riot Tangle Gun 7 was a snare rifle that shot a Naorstrachem pellet mixed with a shrinking agent. The pellet, when exposed to air, explosively expanded into a webbed net several meters in width. The net automatically contracted as soon as it came into contact with a warm surface, such as a living body. It then adhered around the target and tightened, trapping the target almost instantly. However, a problem with tangle guns like the Tangle Gun 7 was that the webbing often contracted too much, resulting in the target being suffocated—and sometimes killed—by the intense contraction of the webbing.[1]
The gun carried a load of fifteen pellets and had a short range of three to ten meters, a medium range of eleven to nineteen meters, and a long range of twenty to twenty-five meters. The weapon cost 300[1] to 500 credits. The size of a blaster carbine, the gun had a light polycarbonate furniture and a short, wide-mouthed barrel.[2]
History
The tangle gun was produced by Merr-Sonn Munitions, Inc. for use by the Galactic Empire. Considered more humane than a blaster, the Anti-Riot Tangle Gun was often used when non-lethal force was needed. Therefore, when Imperial policy went from one of seduction to one of brute force, the weapon was mostly mothballed.[1]
The gun was included in General Airen Cracken's field guide for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The weapon's article was accompanied by an illustration of the gun along with a depiction of a Duros caught in the gun's webbing.[1]
Behind the scenes
The Anti-Riot Tangle Gun 7 was introduced in Cracken's Rebel Field Guide, a reference book written by Christopher Kubasik for the West End Games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, which was published in June 1991.[1] The weapon was later mentioned in The Far Orbit Project,[3] The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia,[4] and Far Horizons.[2]
Sources
- Cracken's Rebel Field Guide
- Galladinium's Fantastic Technology
- The Far Orbit Project
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (as Tangle Gun 7)
- Far Horizons (as Tangle Gun 7)