Laser guns? Or not.
POSTED BY: Cosmoline
UPDATED: Thursday, August 25, 2005 04:32
VIEWED: 8100
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Rance is a big man on his little moon, but he's a big fish in a small pond. On a central planet, he'd be a hick from the sticks. He'd be attracted to a big manly gun with all the bells and whistles.
Enara has a lot more class. She was a woman of consequence on a central planet, and as such would have access to resources Rance could only dream about. Her gun would be classier, more sophisticated. She knows that she wouldn't be shooting anyone at a distance, so no need for "auto target adjust". Rance shoots from his hovercraft, Enara shoots in self defence when her opponent is nearby.
And Enara's gun has a tiny red light on it, so it's clearly an electronic weapon. It's a "stilletto" compared to "saber".
My money's still on Enara for a dainty, ladylike, lethal laser weapon that'll fit in her purse.
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If Inara had a laser weapon, I would think she would have loaned it to the crew for their rescue of Mal during War Stories.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Jadehand:
Yes,
Other than "the Lassiter" in "Trash", I think the only other privately owned beam weapon is shown in ""Heart of gold" owned by "Rance Burgess". They are supposed to to be far too expensive for everyone to have.
And even Rance pointed out to Mal that only the military is supposed to be able to get their hands on the laser pistol. He of course pointed this out to flaunt how his wealth & influence managed gain him one.
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Two thoughts as to the reliability of beam weapons:
Get a slug thrower wet and it still fires. Get water on the emitter end of a laser and what happens as the light scatters?
Slug throwers shoot through smoge and dust clouds really well; beams should suffer from dispersion.
Beams look and sound cool, but have some serious tech downsides that shouldn't be overlooked just because scifi usually overlooks them.
Oh dear god, I'm in a techno-babble conversation.
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Depends on the type of beam weapon...
Plasma weapons wouldn't be dispersed for instance.
Lasers and particle beams would be dispersed (particle beams less than lasers tho) and they also experience an energy loss that is inversly proportional to the square of the distance...
basically if the distance doubles the power of the beam is cut by a factor of four and so on...
Thats in a vacuum to so where the beams are losing power to the atmosphere the energy loss would be greater.
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A couple of thoughts:
I think the discussion between Rance and Mal regarding the laser being only military/gov't use is the level of the technology in question. Civilians (edit) in our society (/edit) can have guns, so long as they are not automatics and so on, but the military can have automatics and then some. I think the point was it was a military-grade weapon, not civilian. Just my take on it.
I also believe Inara's pistol is a laser pistol because she says "this one works" when she puts down the Lassiter and picks hers up.
So lasers exist, they CAN be owned by civilians, but sluggers are cheap, easy to manufacture and maintain, so much so, that even the Alliance is tossing around hot-lead in the Serenity and The Message flashback scenes. Sure they had lasers/plasma weapons too, but nothing beats projectile weapons for mass destruction. Note that even in Bushwhacked, they use missiles, not lasers, to destroy the shipwreck, and even in The Message, Womack fires missiles at/around Serenity.
Oh, and I'll take the whole easy-to-reload slugger any day versus a "check battery" light. ;P
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Quote:
Originally posted by TenthCrewMember:
...I'll take the whole easy-to-reload slugger any day versus a "check battery" light. ;P
Hee! That, and the scene in "Ariel" when Jayne tries to blast the lock off a door with a sonic rifle, are two of the coolest arguments in favor of slug-throwers I know.
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The only thing I *REALLY* want an answer to is how does a bolt-action rifle fire automatically.
See the opening scene of Our Mrs. Reynolds. The guy on the horse who peppers the "boat" has a bolt-action rifle in his hand, yet it fires like an M-16. 
WTF?
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Far-fetched rationalization time ...
The bolt's like the kick-starter on a modern Harley: sort of functional but really mostly ornamental.
Heh.
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Quote:
And even Rance pointed out to Mal that only the military is supposed to be able to get their hands on the laser pistol. He of course pointed this out to flaunt how his wealth & influence managed gain him one.
Rance is talking about the "auto target adjust", which is not "generally legal, for a private owner."
To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks. --Robt. Heinlein
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