Okay, so I get the problem. Merchant ships in international waters can't carry guns of any kind. Maritime Law. Fine. Dumb, but fine. Part two of the problem: bad guys don't seem to care much about the law. Which explains why six men in a rubber raft can float on out from Somalia and capture a huge US ship. It explains it, but something isn't right.
Water canons and sound guns (these buggers that are supposed to repel bad guys by hurting their ears, unless they stopped by the neighborhood Snyder's and bought earplugs) apparently don't do the trick, so what would? Australia plays Barry Manilow tunes to prevent mall looting. I guess that's too much for the average criminal to take, but these pirates don't seem average.
Some ideas.
Archers. Yeah, it's old school, but we're talking rubber rafts.
Hot oil sprayers. This is also from the middle ages, and somebody would cry unusual punishment for poor people just trying to make a living. But there would be few repeat offenders.
Lasers. We've been to moon. We can heat soup in 60 seconds in the microwave. We have to have some laser deal that burns through rubber in a few seconds. If not, what about a really big presentation pen light. Retina fryer. Should work.
Or, of course, we could simply give ships cruising along the East African coast a machine gun. Yes, we'd need to change the law. Yes, they'd need to declare it in their manifest, but it seems a small price to pay to avoid hostages and lost cargo.
But what do I know? After all, those pirates are just redistributing world wealth-- taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Maybe that's why the admin. is silent on the crisis. Piracy--change we can believe in.
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