There was an article on a Las Vegas news site about how Las Vegas police were training to use "less lethal" devices during confrontations:

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A company known for its firearm technology took the time to teach our local law enforcement about less-lethal weapons Saturday.

Bryna Technologies' held training in Boulder City this morning.

Over 150 law enforcement and private security agencies across the country got the opportunity to use Bryna's line of products.

"I've got some instructors out here that combined have over 75 years of tactical swat and operational experience here to show them exactly how everything is supposed to work and really tune them up on their tactical skills," said Josh Schirard, Director of Law Enforcement & Private Security for Bryna.

Currently, Byrna is training the ATF, DEA and other organizations on the platform.

Back during the Obama years, I blogged here about the rash of school shootings and other mass shootings in the United States. I pointed the finger at frequent prescription of SSRI antidepressants, which are documented to cause erratic and strange behavior in adolescents and have mysterious origins and composition. I still think that is a huge culprit, and the tide has turned in opinion about prescribing such drugs. There is also the lack of mental health enforcement, including holding people who demonstrate themselves as a threat to themselves or others. And, of course, there is the easy access of firearms in the United States. Mix that with social atomization and a lack of community and social fabric, racial tension and the militarization of the police and you get a recipe for danger and even tragedy.

It is not either or, however, and all of these causes work together to create a toxic situation. You have to be creative in thinking how to alleviate such a problem. We are in a market based economy and the right to weapons, i.e. "arms," is enshrined in the constitution. However, think about this one - the Second Amendment just says "arms." It does not say "firearms." By all means, if the government continues to allow people the right to defend themselves in dangerous and toxic situations with arms, it should be able to restrict firearms.

Imagine how much less disturbing various police encounters, like the shooting of Philandro Castile or Daniel Shaver, would have been if police had used less lethal means. This does not ignore the fact that some cops are genuinely bad and want to hurt/kill people. Only that other means and reduction in firearms use would make such events less likely. Of course, there are critics who say that "the shift from bullets to beanbags only masks a much larger issue regarding how police treat people in custody."

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The Byrna self defense device, which shoots large "pepperballs" which act as a much more heavy duty exchange of the same impact as pepper spray, is very analogous to the Pepperball airgun created by the German company Umarex. Test videos of the device show that being hit with a pepperball isn't fun at all but is not about to be lethal.

Umarex is a huge and innovative company in Germany, which also happens to have the strictest firearms regulations in the world. Both the Byrna and Umarex product use CO2 to launch the mechanism. This is technology that has actually existed for hundreds of years, but it was a cultural fixation on firearms that kept it from being adopted until now.

Firearms exist in Europe, of course, but there are restrictions on access to them so intense that it blocks out most people with harmful intentions. In the United Kingdom, police aren't equipped regularly with firearms but instead have a "firearms unit," in which the weapons are brought out only to deal with serious incidents like terrorists, etc. 

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Years of progressive Democratic rule have made us reassess and upend various aspects of daily American life. The possibility of deadly weapons being replaced by "less lethal" ones is just one among many changes. Urban roads are now filled with electric bikes and cars, a much more equitable situation than when bicyclists struggled to peddle while sharing roads with giant gas guzzlers.Vegetarian "plant based" and various ethnic foods are now as widely available at grocery stores and restaurants as a hamburger or frozen pizza once was. During more conservative times, these alternatives were non-existent and what they provide an alternative to was either embraced or denounced.

Wal-Mart has been upended by Amazon. Whereas once nothing was shamed more than accepting welfare or "handouts," both the right and left accepted the notion of conditionless government assistance during the Covid 19 pandemic.The political framework has also been upended. A major political figure, Andrew Yang, has embraced third party politics, while the right is led by people like Saagar Enjeti, Vivek Ramaswamy and Larry Elder.