I haven’t heard any complaints about dense inert metal explosives recently:
A DIME weapon consists of a carbon fiber casing filled with a mixture of explosive and very dense microshrapnel, consisting of very small particles (1–2 mm) or powder of a heavy metal. To date, tungsten alloy (heavy metal tungsten alloy, or HMTA) composed of tungsten and other metals such as cobalt and nickel or iron has been the preferred material for the dense microshrapnel or powder.
[…’
The HMTA powder acts like micro-shrapnel which is very lethal at close range (about 4 m or 13 ft), but loses momentum very quickly due to air resistance, coming to a halt within approximately 40 times the diameter of the charge. This increases the probability of killing people within a few meters of the explosion while reducing the probability of causing death and injuries or damage farther away. Survivors close to the lethal zone may still have their limbs amputated by the HMTA microshrapnel, which can slice through soft tissue and bone.
[…]
In July and August 2006, doctors in the Gaza Strip reported unusual wounds caused by Israel Defense Forces attacks against Palestinians, claiming that they were from previously unknown weapons. A lab analysis of the metals found in the victims’ bodies was reportedly “compatible with the hypothesis” that DIME weapons were involved. Israel denied possessing or using such weapons, and an Israeli military expert said that the wounds were consistent with ordinary explosives.
Gary Brecher, the War Nerd, reported on their use against Hamas a few years ago:
There’ve been reports out of Gaza that when the Israelis blast one of these Hamas guys outside a coffee house or his home, there’ve been weird injuries to the people standing next to the target — their arms and legs get sheared off clean, as if God himself lowered a big rotary saw over him and lifted him up into the sky like a core sample from an oil rig, along with the odd arm or leg of other people who happened to be inside the magic 4 meters. The wounds have supposedly stopped clean at that point, cauterized by the blast.
Naturally, such precise munitions are considered a crime against humanity — because tungsten powder can cause cancer.
The present order has no clue, and what’s worse, it has no clue that it has no clue.
Forget the obvious contradiction of such a precision weapon being a, “Crime against humanity,” when compared to the alternatives, how can one meaningfully speak of such a category of crimes apart from God?
The whole mess is a house of cards, from manifest hypocrisy to crooked moral foundations.
On a more technical note, what a fascinating and impressive weapon. Ballistics and explosives are such interesting things, one marvels at what wonderous dangers rural America would produce if the fear of the ATF was removed. I’m convinced that the amount of technical knowhow, readily available materials and space, and a world class, “idgaf,” attitude would certainly produce some truly impressive munitions and weapons.
And lost limbs and lives, but also some cool things.