posted August 20, 1999 02:52 PM            

The purpose of this switch is to force a police SWAT sniper to lay all his cards on the table. The terrorist who employs this switch, in conjunction with explosives and a hostage cannot be shot by the police sniper. This ploy has been successfully by a handfull of very smart terrorists.

The switch is made and used as follows. Take a cloths pin and squeeze it, thus opening the jaws. Now take two thumb tacks and insert them in the wooden part of the cloths pin. One on top, and the other on the bottom. Now if you release pressure on the clothspin the two thumbtacks come together. Insulated wire leads are run from each contact to the explosive device. Of course there is no power to the device, or there is a seperate arming switch which is thrown after the jaws of the clothspi are seperated.

To use the Dead Man's Switch the terrorist places the clothes pin in his mouth so it is hanging out the front of his mouth. Then he bites the free ends of the clothespin and opens the jaws and thus seperates the contacts. Now he can turn on the power to the bomb. If the police sniper were to shoot him he would lose muscle tension in his jaw and the jaws of the clothespin would come together, bringing the thumb tack contacts together, thus completing the circuit. The bomb would explode.

If the terrorist had the explosives strapped to his chest, and had a hostage handcuffed to himself, the police siper coud not shoot.

To see a Dead Man's Switch in action I suggest you rent the movie "The Kidnapping of the President" (1975). The switch is a push button switch but functions basically the same. The button is pushed and the arming switch is hit by the terrorist. Now if his thumb is taken off the switch the device explodes.

For informational purposes only.

killer_elite@my-Deja.com

posted August 21, 1999 06:18 PM            

And I see a flaw with this plan of yours.

How, may I ask are you going to get the cops to put down their weapons and leave you alone if your not "available" to "negotiate/inform them of what your armed with" due to the bomb trigger in your mouth?

posted August 21, 1999 11:19 PM            

This exact situation was played out in a Wyoming school room about 10 or 15 years ago. The guy had this exact switch in his mouth, wired to a bunch of gallon jugs of gasoline in a shopping cart he brought from home. The device detonated and as I recall he died as did his ugly wife who was with him.

These dead man switches are for martyr's. One shoud not plan for the future but shoud have a cause worth dying for.