By: Ben Wietmarschen
U.S. Navy Tests New Laser Weapon, Gap Between Childhood Fantasy and Adult Reality Almost Nonexistent


When I was a young boy in school I would draw pictures of airplanes shooting things with lasers. I have no clue why I did this. Outside of these drawings I was never really interested in planes or shooting things or drawing. When you ‘re a young kid you imagine shooting things with lasers and those things blowing up and you make sound effects with your weird new mouth that you ‘re just learning to use BECAUSE YOU DON ‘T UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE.
The U.S. Navy released a video this morning of them testing out a new LaWS (laser weapon system) which would be the first deployed laser weapon in the world. Apparently the lasers are extremely cheap (59 cents per shot) and perform well on moving targets both at sea and in the air. And get this: they ‘re operated with a ‘Video-game like controller.”
Now, I ‘m fully aware that there is a level of violence and death that I am blissfully unaware of in this world. I live a privileged life in front of a computer and am light years away from understanding the gruesome, sausage-making details of what it takes to give me the freedom to sit comfortably in front of this computer. But watching a video of a guy using actual Xbox(-like) controllers to shoot actual laser beams to blow up actual ships and planes that (not today but) one day will have actual people on them is a very surreal scene for me. Please pray for our world.