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Anti-Siege Gas Meter

In case of standoffs.
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A "smart" gas meter for buildings large and small.

If a siege situation eventuates in the premises, the meter can be sent a remote command to open a high volume connection to the interior of the building allowing law enforcment personnel to pump in an incapacitating agent.

8th of 7, Apr 04 2010

Russia's botched gassing attempt http://en.wikipedia...ater_hostage_crisis
Probably what [mouseposture] is referring to [Wrongfellow, Apr 04 2010]

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       H.H.Holmes built an entire hotel on this principle. Gas lightning, of course (it was 1890s Chicago), but to his own specifications: in some rooms, there were gas pipes without mantles, and the valves were located *outside* the rooms. And those rooms' doors locked from the outside. There was also a crematorium in the basement. (_Devil in the White City_, by Erik Larson. Nonfiction. Really.)   

       On the subject of incapacitating gas use by law enforcement, didn't the Russian government do this a few years back, in a hostage-taking siege situation? As I recall, results were suboptimal, but I don't remember details.)
mouseposture, Apr 04 2010
  

       Presumably this would mean that every house needed some kind of additional connector that the cops could pump their gas into.   

       I wouldn't have thought it would be tricky for the perpetrator to damage this connector badly enough that a new one needs to be fitted before the pumping can commence. At that point, if it's near enough to the house, the hostage-taker can shoot at anyone who tries to repair it, rendering it effectively useless.   

       Maybe the gas distribution infrastructure should be extended to deliver some kind of narcotic alongside the normal gas? This sounds like a lot of effort for the result it achieves.
Wrongfellow, Apr 04 2010
  

       //Maybe the gas distribution infrastructure should be extended to deliver some kind of narcotic alongside the normal gas?// Makes sense, in the right context. I could definitely imagine the North Korean government wanting to do this. Problem (for them) would be implementing the gas distribution infrastructure.
mouseposture, Apr 04 2010
  

       Couldn't the cops, faced with this situation, dig up the gas line (or access it via a manhole), shut the building's gas off from a valve, and supply whatever gas they wish in its place?
Alx_xlA, Jun 29 2010
  

       [21_Quest] Rather than rely on memory, read [Wrongfellow]'s link. Failure promptly to identify the incapacitating agent to hospitals treating gassed hostages cost hostages' lives. The use of gas was presumably optimal (i.e. "least of evils") from some point of view, but minimizing casualties* does not seem to have been weighted very heavily by whoever planned that operation.   

       *Well, perhaps he was minimizing casualties among his own troops.
mouseposture, Jun 29 2010
  


 

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