Dart gun

For toy guns that shoot foam darts, see Foam dart blaster. For other uses, see Dart gun (disambiguation).

A Dan Inject Model JM air rifle with a tranquillizer dart

A dart gun is an air rifle that fires a dart. The dart is tipped with a hypodermic needle and filled with a sedative, vaccine or antibiotic. A dart gun containing a sedative is called a tranquillizer gun (also spelled tranquilizer gun, tranquilliser gun or tranquiliser gun).

History

The modern dart gun was invented in the 1950s by New Zealander Colin Murdoch. During his involvement in a research project on Himalayan tahr in the Southern Alps, he considered that administering a dose of sedative from afar was safer for humans and more humane for animals than current methods of capture. To that end, Murdoch went on to develop a range of rifles, darts, and pistols.

The first modern remote drug-delivery system was invented by scientists at the University of Georgia in the 1950s, and was the direct predecessor to the Cap-Chur equipment used worldwide for decades. In 1953, a study on antler growth was conducted in which seven free-ranging bucks were tranquilized — three died from overdose, three were successfully sedated, and one was minimally affected.

In the early 1960s, a team in Kenya headed by Toni Harthoorn discovered that various species, despite being of roughly equal size (for example, the rhinoceros and the buffalo), needed very different doses and spectra of drugs to safely immobilize them.

Since 1967, hollow bullets with sedatives for immobilization of wild animals began to be used in the USSR. In the first half of the 1970s, experimental 9×53mmR cartridges for immobilization of wild animals for 9mm "Los" bolt-action carbine and "flying dart" for 16 gauge shotguns were made and tested. In the mid-1970s, "flying dart" for 12 gauge shotguns and experimental cartridges for immobilization of wild animals for the SPSh-44 pistol were made and tested. In the second half of the 1980s, the standard tranquillizer gun in the USSR was a single-shot IZh-18M shotgun (a dart with a dose of sedative was fired with a blank cartridge).

In 1979, Murdoch received a call from a police marksman on the Armed Offenders Squad about a man who had taken his wife hostage. Murdoch gave the officer instructions on what dose to use, where to dart the offender, and at what setting to have the weapon's velocity.

While initially designed for delivering sedatives, veterinarians and farmers recognized that the remote drug-delivery system could be used to deliver medications. In 1993, the first wildlife contraceptive was invented, and darts have since been used to deliver contraceptives to does — a humane alternative to hunting. Starting in Kansas in the late 90s, it has become commonplace for farmers to use darts to deliver antibiotics to sick cattle. While farmers had been administering medications to cattle before the invention of the dart gun, it had been impossible to do so without capturing the animal.

Characteristics

The dart, usually .50 caliber (12.7 mm), is a ballistic syringe loaded with a solution and tipped with a hypodermic needle. The dart is propelled from the gun by compressed gas, and it is stabilized in flight by a tailpiece consisting of a tuft of fibrous material. The needle may be plain or collared, with a barb-like ring to improve retention of the needle and syringe to assure that the full dose is administered.

Methods of driving injection upon impact include: gas compression, spring compression, explosive charge, or gas evolution reaction. In one example, compressed air or butane in the rear of the dart pressurizes the solution, while the needle is capped to hold the fluid in place. Upon striking the target, the cap is pierced by the needle as it punctures the animal's skin. With the pressure released, the compressed gas pushes the solution out of the syringe and into the target.

Lethality

As with all forms of sedation, tranquilizer darts are never risk-free. In addition to the risks of the sedative itself such as respiratory failure from overdose, fatal allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis, and aspiration pneumonia or asphyxiation from vomiting while unconscious, there are other circumstances that pose higher secondary risks of serious injury or death, such as subjects running into a body of water and drowning, falling victim to predators, or climbing to potentially fatal heights before falling.

In 1987, as the New York Police Department continued its search "for a device that is stronger than a nightstick and less dangerous than a gun", they rejected tranquilizer darts as "too dangerous".

Darts can be dangerous regardless of what they are being used to deliver, as they can cause fatal injury due to improper velocity setting or shot placement.

Agents

Tranquilizers

Several immobilizing drugs have been devised for use in tranquillizer darts. If an animal is calm or in a position where it cannot attack, a slow-acting sedative will be used. These include:

• Azaperone
• Detomidine
• Midazolam
• Fentanyl and carfentanil
• Haloperidol
• Etorphine
• Diazepam
• Xylazine
• Sodium thiopental

If an animal is out of control, a fast-acting sedative will be used. These take between 2 and 8 minutes to take effect and include:

• Etorphine hydrochloride
• Ketamine

Antibiotics

Antibiotics used in antibiotic darts vary by species.

Deer:

• Enrofloxacin
• Oxytetracycline
• Trimethoprim

Fox:

• Amoxicillin
• Augmentin
• Clindamycin
• Enrofloxacin

Use on animals

Domestic animals

Animal control agencies may use darts to deliver sedatives to stray, feral, or injured dogs when other methods, such as catch poles and snares, have failed. While there is no weight limit, veterinarians advise against using tranquilizer darts on cats because of how difficult it is to get the right dose for small animals without a pre-anesthetic evaluation. Darts designed for cats and small dogs exist, but are primarily used to deliver vaccines and antibiotics. Veterinarians in third-world countries may use darts to deliver vaccines to free-ranging dogs to prevent them from contracting rabies.

Wildlife

Animal control agencies may use darts to deliver sedatives to large wildlife that has wandered into human territory. Wildlife conservationists may use darts to deliver sedatives to animals that are injured, entangled, or requiring surgery. In parts of the United States, does are shot with darts containing a wildlife contraceptive, rendering them temporarily infertile.

Exotic animals

Tranquillizer darts may be used by zoo emergency response teams when an animal has escaped from its enclosure or when a visitor falls into an enclosure.

Cetaceans

National Marine Mammal Entanglement Response Networks may use darts to deliver sedatives to entangled cetaceans.

Farmed animals

Farmers may use darts to deliver antibiotics and vaccines to cattle. Animal control agencies may use darts to deliver sedatives to escaped cattle, sheep, or pigs.

Use on humans

Police and prison use

Tranquilizer darts are not generally included in police less-than-lethal arsenals because a target will start to feel the effect before losing consciousness (since a carefully calculated dosage takes at least a minute to take full effect) and a target that is aware that it is going to lose consciousness can retaliate, a suspect could have a concealed weapon, a target can have a deadly allergic reaction to the sedative, and because effective use requires an estimate of the target's weight—too little sedative will have no effect, and too much sedative will result in death, which can lead to a lawsuit or being convicted of manslaughter or second-degree murder if the target is a human. "If you shot somebody that was small, it could kill them. If you shot somebody who was big or had drugs in their system, it might not do anything." says Newett, of the Justice Department.

Harold C. Palmer, president of the Palmer Chemical and Equipment Company, said he only knew of one case of a tranquilizer dart being used against a criminal. This was in 1961 in a prison in Athens, Georgia. A 220-pound prisoner went berserk and the guard shot him with a tranquilizer dart. Six minutes later, the prisoner lost consciousness. The common method of subduing an inmate for cell extraction is to instead fill their cell with pepper spray.

In 1979, in Auckland, New Zealand, a man took his wife hostage, and the Armed Offenders Squad were called out. Talking to Colin Murdoch, the inventor of the tranquilizer gun, via telephone, a police marksman was instructed what dose to use, where to dart the offender, and at what setting to have the weapon's velocity. The hostage taker lost consciousness within minutes, and the hostage was rescued.

Military use

After several failed prisoner-snatch missions in Vietnam, Chief SOG Colonel Jack Singlaub insisted on using tranquilizer darts. Pentagon officers voiced objections to this. At a conference in 1968, Singlaub raised the issue again. "They asked about NVA reaction to SOG helicopter insertion of recon teams, and they wanted my opinion on the ability of SIG teams to capture valuable NVA officers on the Trail. I pointed out the Pentagon's refusal to authorize tranquilizer darts for this very purpose. [Army Chief of Staff Westmoreland] made it clear the matter would be reconsidered," Singlaub recounts. In the following prisoner-snatch mission, several SOG teams used tranquilizer guns with varying doses. NVA men who had been darted with lower doses retaliated and had to be shot, and NVA men who had been darted with higher doses died from overdose. None were successfully captured.

Criminal use

Tranquilizer darts are generally not used in kidnappings, rape, or theft because they would easily be detected in a public place such as a bar or restaurant. As "drugged beverages are so much easier to conceal," explains Dr. Theodore Davantzis. The only person who has been suspected to have used one criminally is Barry Morphew, who is suspected to have chased his wife around the house after shooting her with a tranquilizer dart. In the family dryer, investigators found a dart cap along with the pair of shorts Morphew was last seen wearing. An autopsy later confirmed the presence of sedative drugs in her body, although it remains unclear whether the drugs were the cause of her death. The sedative found in Suzanne's body was BAM, the same one that Barry, who owned a deer farm, had used to sedate bucks in order to remove and sell their antlers and to sedate deer to transport them to game reserves for canned hunting.

Legality

Tranquilizer darts are banned for use in war by Article I.5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the use of all chemical agents in warfare. Tranquilizer darts are classified as deadly weapons. The only time when tranquilizer darts are not classified as deadly force is in situations where the subject's weight, physical condition, allergies, and what drugs are currently in their system are all known factors (such as zoos and prisons).

Canada

Dart guns are prohibited weapons under Control of Weapons Regulations 2021. Self-protection or self-defense is not a lawful excuse to possess such weapons.

United Kingdom

Dart guns are prohibited weapons under the Firearms Act 1968 and cannot be used to deliver sedatives, antibiotics, or vaccines to a human being without a firearms license and permission from the Secretaries of State.

Further reading

• Harthoorn, Antonie Marinus (1970). The Flying Syringe. Bles.
• Harthoorn, Antonie Marinus (1976). The Chemical Capture of Animals. Baillière Tindall. ISBN 0-7020-0558-4.
• Anti-personnel dart design - patent details
• Blow gun inoculating dart design - patent details
• CIA Dart Gun