Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

SALT is a non-lethal firearm that fires pepper spray capsules instead of bullets

Add as a preferred source on Google

A startup is developing a gun, but it’s unlike any other gun available on the market. Instead of firing with deadly force, the new SALT gun was designed under the premise that a gun doesn’t have to take a life to protect a life. Instead of using bullets, the SALT gun comes armed with pellets containing pepper spray which explode on impact. The dispersal of the pepper spray is designed to incapacitate any attacker, providing home and bodily protection without a deadly outcome.

Developed by Adam Kennedy and his neighbor Andy MacIntosh, the duo desired a way for their wives to protect themselves while traveling for business. Both women repeatedly objected to keeping a gun in their house, so the men came up with the idea for SALT, a non-lethal gun incredibly effective at disabling an intruder.

Recommended Videos

Unlike traditional guns which make use of gunpowder and provide quite a kick, the SALT uses CO2 cartridges similar to a paintball or airsoft gun. Because the gun possesses minimal blowback, the SALT can be fired easily by anyone, including children, who can handle the gun with minimal chance of major injury from misuse of the gun. It even includes practice rounds containing baby powder, allowing owners to practice firing the gun safely. Because it uses CO2, the SALT doesn’t require official gun regulation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It also is not subject to federal gun laws and does not require a background check in order to purchase.

To ensure its gun delivered enough of a punch to incapacitate a target, Salt Supply Company hired several chemists who used to work for PepperBall, a company which produces similar products for military and law enforcement. As a result, SALT’s chemical compounds offer military grade effectiveness. Each round has a four-feet radius that allows the shooter to miss the target while still hitting the intended mark with pepper spray. Once dispersed, the spray is designed to hang in the air which increases the contact with the target. It affects the target within seconds, leaving them incapacitated for up to 30 minutes.

The company already has a factory in Indiana available to produce thousands of SALT guns each month. Initially, Salt Supply Company took to making use of a crowdfunding campaign to raise $75,000 for the insurance necessary to bring the gun to the market, however, the campaign was pulled by Indiegogo. Now, the company continues to look for an alternative crowdfunding site and allows to people to sign-up for an alert when the pre-ordering process commences again.

Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…
Yet another study says AI is bad for elections, and the rabbit hole gets worse
AI may be an election bomb waiting for someone to light the fuse
Voters cast their ballots on Election Day

Another election, another study has concluded that asking an AI chatbot for political guidance is a spectacularly bad idea. Research conducted during Hungary’s 2026 parliamentary election found that ChatGPT and Google Gemini offered not just inaccurate but also inconsistent and unreliable voting advice. The chatbots misclassified voter profiles, overlooked relevant parties, recommended parties absent from the ballot, and sometimes produced materially different answers when given the same information repeatedly.

AI keeps failing the voter test

Read more
Samsung’s humanoid robot ambitions are real, but factories come first
Samsung’s new robotics division has humanoids in its sights, although its immediate business is far more practical factory automation
Robot Touch Human Finger

Samsung wants a place in the humanoid race, but its new robotics push begins with machines built for factories rather than homes.

The CEO-led RX robotics division will initially focus on manufacturing robots. Samsung has separately identified humanoids as a priority, although it hasn’t announced a commercial model or explained where one fits into the division’s immediate plans.

Read more
The future of AI may depend on this one behind-the-scenes change
Running Claude on Android.

Whenever a new AI model arrives, it's easy to get caught up in the bells and whistles. We talk about how much smarter it is, how quickly it answers questions, or how realistic its images have become. But here's the thing: none of that matters much if the AI can't reliably work with the apps and services people use every day.

That's why an upcoming update to the Model Context Protocol (MCP) caught my attention. It isn't a new chatbot or a fancy AI model. In fact, most people will never even know it's happening. But it could quietly make the AI ecosystem a lot healthier. If you've never heard of MCP before, don't worry. Think of it as a shared language that lets AI assistants safely talk to apps like Gmail, Slack, calendars, databases, and countless other services. Instead of every company inventing its own way to make those connections, MCP gives everyone a common rulebook.

Read more