Pellet guns, often marketed as non-lethal crowd control tools, have been associated with severe injuries and fatalities worldwide. A 2021 investigation by The Guardian found that at least 53 people died in the United States between 1990 and 2020 after being struck by police projectiles, including pellet guns and rubber bullets. These weapons, which fire metal or plastic pellets at high velocities, can penetrate skin, fracture bones, and cause internal organ damage.
In India, pellet guns have been used extensively in Kashmir for crowd control since 2010, leading to hundreds of eye injuries and at least 14 deaths, according to a 2018 report by Amnesty International. The pellets, often made of steel, can cause permanent blindness and traumatic brain injuries. Medical studies, such as one published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology in 2019, document the severity of ocular trauma from these weapons.
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called for a ban on the use of pellet guns in crowd control due to their disproportionate harm. The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials state that lethal force should only be used when strictly unavoidable, and non-lethal weapons must be designed to minimize injury.
Despite their classification as 'less-lethal,' pellet guns pose significant risks, especially when used against the head or torso. A 2020 study in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine found that pellet gun injuries can be fatal, particularly in cases of chest or head trauma. Law enforcement agencies in some countries, such as the UK, have restricted their use, while others continue to deploy them in protests.
