Lawgiver...

[WoD]

Has anyone tracked the frequency that different 'bullets' have been used over the years?  I wonder if their use varies in popularity with time or different writers??

Guess who had trouble sleeping last night...

[Aaron A Aardvark]

Has anyone tracked the frequency that different 'bullets' have been used over the years?

I'm gonna take a guess at... no.

[Jared Katooie]

Here's my guess. From most-used, to least.

1) Standard Execution - Used countless times. Usually at least once in every story.

2) Hi-Ex - Used much less often, but still more regularly than other types of bullet. If Dredd's facing a particularly tough obstacle or opponent, he usually skips by armour-piercing and goes straight to the Hi-Ex.

3) Ricochet - Hard to judge whether this has seen more use than heatseeker, but I'd say so. This bullet is used only very rarely, usually so Dredd can perform some sort of trick shot.

4) Heatseeker - Again, very rarely used. Occasionaly used to take down a fleeing perp.

5) Armour-piercing - You'd imagine that this bullet would get used a lot more often than ricochet or heatseeker, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Almost always used to shoot someone through a wall or a steel door, or something. Also used against some robots.

6) Incendiary - The most unloved bullet. When this is used, it is almost always to take down Judge Death. It was last used in Mutie Block, because Dredd had run out of Hi-Ex rounds.

[Richard]

I'm gonna take a guess at... no.

You'd imagine you were on safe ground with that guess, but then again one frequent poster on this board made a database indexing every single letter published in 1700+ progs and 300+ Megs over 33 years. You might yet be surprised.

[Mardroid]

I often wonder why they don't use stun more often too.*
For example  I've seen Dredd shoot a fleeing unarmed perp. To be fair, he does usually give them a chance to surrender, but it still seemed more murder than anything.

Okay I can see the logic in sticking to lethal rounds. They're totalitarian enforcers policing an overpopulated crime ridden city, and it makes sense from a preventative point of view. I.e. if you know of someone who was killed in cold blood after committing a minor crime (albeit that usually only happens if they flee) you're less likely to break the law. On the other hand it can work the other way, causing enraged citizens to take up arms, hence the pro-democracy terrorist groups....

Does the stun setting not exist for the majority of writers?

[Richard]

John Wagner used a stun setting in "The Sons of Katies Didd," I think in prog 1249, so that's as definitive as you can get. Don't know how it fits in with the 6 kinds of bullet though... maybe each judge gets to choose what to load in each of his 6 magazines.

[Mardroid]

I actually thought the stun setting might be a kind of energy beam rather than the usual projectile rounds.

I love the fact that many of the characters in 2000 AD strips have projectile weapons in futuristic settings rather than going for the old energy weapon clichés by the way! Not that I dislike those, but it seems realistic that this would be the case in the 'real' future. I can see lasers being used as a cannon type weapon* but unlikely to be a hand gun. (But who knows.)

*I was quite interested to hear that they've already done just that. I heard a news report of a laser being used to shoot down an autopilot plane in a US military test recently!

[Jared Katooie]

I'm almost certian that the stun shot is an energy-based attack that's seperste from a lawgivers ormal ammo load.

As for why it doesn't get used more often, I'm going to say - limited range.

In fact Gordon Rennie mentioned this in one his Dredd's, but as far as I'm concerned, if Wagner doesn't say it, it's not canon!

[vzzbux]

I can remember the stun being used on a juve (Right on the fore head) that had inadvertently picked up a robotic pistol which tricked the kid into shooting some fatso's head off.







V

[Steven Sterlacchini]

Ron Smith used some kind of paint based marker shell in one of the Dredd news strip stories as well.

He sort of shot it over their heads and it burst above them, if I remember right?

Steven

[jamesedwards]

Lawgiver = handgun equivalent of Green Arrow's tricked out quiver?

[James Stacey]

You forgot to mention Double Whammy 

[Dandontdare]

when Dredd used a stun shot on the psycho that kidnapped little Vienna waaaaaay back, I always had the impression from Gibson's art that he'd just shot him a glancing blow to the skull with a standard bullet. I always put this down to Dredd's amazing marksmanship rather than a seventh setting on the lawgiver.

[radiator]

when Dredd used a stun shot on the psycho that kidnapped little Vienna waaaaaay back, I always had the impression from Gibson's art that he'd just shot him a glancing blow to the skull with a standard bullet. I always put this down to Dredd's amazing marksmanship rather than a seventh setting on the lawgiver.

I think you're right regarding old school Dredd, but an actual stun shot came in with the MkII lawgiver which was introduced in the story Gun Play from prog 1122.



It's like a short range electrical charge rather than a projectile, and it's been used very rarely since. Not sure why Wagner introduced the stun shot only to then ignore it - perhaps editorial requested it...? But from a story point of view, it makes sense that the then Chief Judge Volt, was behind it - he was a bit of a softie after all!

[Alski]

Personally, I think he should just throw shoes or something. Non lethal and lots of fun as well.