The Defenzia M-09 is a Russian-made less-lethal firearm that shoots rubber bullets, flash bangs and/or signal flares out of 18.5×55 mm cartridge. As the report above reveals, Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Department is the first U.S. law enforcement agency to deploy the M-09 stateside. On his Facebook page, Sheriff Babeu claims “This weapon may prove to be a transformative opportunity for law enforcement to be pro-active, trying everything possible to safely resolve incidents when force must be used. The deployment of this weapon may also help mitigate civil liability.” On the civilian side . . .
OSA and Defenzia plan on introducing a 50 caliber “M11” version of the M-09 to the U.S. market this year, pending BATF approval. (Not sure why they didn’t go with the Compact 40mm above.)
As TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia no doubt concluded, as wikipedia.org reports, “A person shot from about 1 meter with an 18x45T OSA pistol to the temporal region of the head suffered a penetrative injury, with the bullet traversing most of the brain, reducing the victim to a vegetative state.” Does that qualify as a non-lethal injury?
[FYI: For the gun mentioned above, we’re talking a “15.3 mm rubber bullet in aluminum case. The traumatic cartridge contains an 11.6 g bullet, made of rubber and having a metal reinforcing core. This bullet has an initial speed of about 120 m / s and a muzzle energy of about 85 J.”]