"You have to feel the ray gun to believe it," says 60 Minutes correspondent David Martin, speaking about a non-lethal weapon the Pentagon has developed, "and there's only one way to do that."
Martin was reportedly "zapped" 17 times for this piece, demonstrating the effects, as well as the possibility that a person could reduce the impact with shields of various materials.
"The gun is really an antenna which shoots out this very high-frequency radio beam that penetrates the skin to a depth of 1/64 of an inch, which is just deep enough to hit the nerves," says Martin. "And it creates this instantaneous sensation of heat which makes anyone who is hit with it try to get out of the way as fast as possible.
"And the second you do get out of the way, the pain goes away," Martin continued. "And the point is that this gun, which has a range of roughly half a mile - the exact range is classified - can make you stop whatever it is you're doing."
It seems that is the intended benefit of this weapon, which Martin says causes the sensation of being scalded with hot water.
He asks, "How many innocent lives have been lost by someone approaching a check-point and not heeding the warning signs that American soldiers were giving them ...? Now you have this gun. If you shoot that ray gun at someone and they keep coming you can safely assume that they have evil intent and have cleared the way to use more lethal force, which would be their rifle."
This video is from CBSNews.com, broadcast February 28, 2008.