Tickle Me Elmo Creator Invents a Sometimes-Lethal Weapon

Bruce Lund, CEO of Lund & Co. Inventions, cemented his company’s reputation as the toy inventor that produced hit products, including Honey: My Baby Pony and Tickle Me Elmo. But through a curious chain of events, his company’s latest product is a nonlethal weapon for the military nicknamed the Big Hurt.

Lund’s enthusiasm for hydrogen combustion power led him to look at all sorts of unlikely applications, including a hydrogen-powered lawnmower and even power tools. But Lund made little progress with other combustion applications—until a friend alerted him to a Pentagon Small Business Innovation Research request for technology to power a nonlethal weapon. The problem with existing weapons firing rubber bullets, beanbags and other crowd-control rounds is their velocity. Anything that is effective at 50 yards may be lethal at 5 yards; anything that is safe at 5 yards won’t be fast enough to be effective at 50. Lund’s solution is a weapon that automatically measures the range to the target and varies the muzzle velocity accordingly. – [source]