Skip to main content

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

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…
Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan hit the brake on shipments to U.S. over tariffs
Range Rover Sport P400e

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced it will pause shipments of its UK-made cars to the United States this month, while it figures out how to respond to President Donald Trump's 25% tariff on imported cars.

"As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions, including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans," JLR said in a statement sent to various media.

Read more
DeepSeek readies the next AI disruption with self-improving models
DeepSeek AI chatbot running on an iPhone.

Barely a few months ago, Wall Street’s big bet on generative AI had a moment of reckoning when DeepSeek arrived on the scene. Despite its heavily censored nature, the open source DeepSeek proved that a frontier reasoning AI model doesn’t necessarily require billions of dollars and can be pulled off on modest resources.

It quickly found commercial adoption by giants such as Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo, while the likes of Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent quickly gave it a spot on their platforms. Now, the buzzy Chinese company’s next target is self-improving AI models that use a looping judge-reward approach to improve themselves.

Read more
Toyota shifts gears: 15 New EVs and a million cars by 2027
Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

After years of cautiously navigating the electric vehicle (EV) market, Toyota is finally ramping up its commitment to fully electric vehicles.
The Japanese automaker, which has long relied on hybrids, is now planning to develop about 15 fully electric models by 2027, up from five currently. These models will include vehicles under the Toyota and Lexus brands, with production expected to reach 1 million units annually by that year, according to a report from Nikkei.
This strategy marks a significant shift for Toyota, which has thus far remained conservative in its approach to electric cars. The company sold just 140,000 EVs globally in 2024—representing less than 2% of its total global sales. Despite this, Toyota is aiming for a much larger presence in the EV market, targeting approximately 35% of its global production to be electric by the end of the decade.
The Nikkei report suggests the company plans to diversify its production footprint beyond Japan and China and expanding into the U.S., Thailand, and Argentina. This would help mitigate the impact of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all car imports, as well as reduce delivery times. Toyota is also building a battery plant in North Carolina.
For now, Toyota has only two fully electric vehicles on the U.S. market: The bZ4X  and the Lexus RZ models. The Japanese automaker is expected to introduce new models like the bZ5X and a potential electric version of the popular Tacoma pickup.
Separately, Toyota and Honda, along with South Korea’s Hyundai, all announced on April 4 that they would not be raising prices, at least over the next couple of months, following the imposition of U.S. tariffs. According to a separate Nikkei report, Toyota’s North American division has told its suppliers that it will absorb the extra costs of parts imported from Mexico and Canada. Another 25% for automotive parts imported to the U.S. is slated to come into effect on May 3.

Read more