--- title: "Startup Trying to Sell Lasso Gun to Capture Unruly Kids In Schools" description: "A company that sells \"lasso guns\" to cops is working on ways to get its firearm into schools and medical institutions." date: "2022-02-05" modified: "2022-02-05" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/lasso-gun-schools" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Prosthetics and Devices" tags: - "advanced weapons" - "police violence" - "taser" - "the digest" --- # Startup Trying to Sell Lasso Gun to Capture Unruly Kids In Schools ![A company that sells "lasso guns" to cops is working on ways to get its firearm into schools and medical institutions.]() *\Image: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images/Futurism\* A company that sells "lasso guns" to cops is working on ways to get its firearm into medical institutions and even schools. Records [unearthed by *Vice*]() reveal that Wrap Technologies, the company that manufactures the BolaWrap lasso gun, has even received interest from at least one hospital to use its lasso gun to help restrain "noncompliant individuals." Getting the lasso guns into hospitals, schools, and other non-police or military entities, however, would require the company's lasso guns to be exempt from the National Firearm Act (NFA). That's where Wrap's lobbying of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) comes in, as [records from an October 2021 investor call]() saw the company's since-resigned CEO and President Tom Smith informing stockholders that the company had applied to deregulate its latest model in hopes of broadening its sale prospects. The goofy yet powerful guns whip ropes around targets, like cowboys with lassos — a weird idea that's [started catching on among cops]() to restrain suspects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Mgc84iLvU The company's latest model, the BolaWrap 150, is the same as Wrap's previous lasso guns except that it uses an airbag-like mechanism to release its cord rather than gunpowder, the report notes. This strategy, *Vice* added, is a tried-and-true one used by Smith, who founded Taser International with his brother in 1993 and was able to get the company's stun guns deregulated under the NFA after switching its products from gunpowder to a compressed gas propellant, which allowed the guns to be sold to private citizens and civilian institutions in some states. Smith [was appointed as CEO]() of Wrap in March 2021 and left in late January of this year — though not before applying for the determination from the ATF that, per its website, [Wrap expects]() to be in its favor. Wrap has yet to achieve the success of Taser (which changed its name to Axon Enterprises in 2017, five years after Smith left the company to "[pursue opportunities to join other boards]()"), whose ubiquitous and [dangerous stun guns]() are used as "non-lethal" gun alternatives by [police departments all over the country](). Nevertheless, [Wrap has already come under fire]() after Buffalo police were filmed in 2021 using one of the company's $900 lasso guns on a Black trans woman experiencing a mental health crisis instead of attempting to deescalate or engage with her at all. After the debacle, mental health experts told *Vice* that the lasso gun would likely cause more harm than good, even if it is billed as more "humane" than a gun, which sounds awfully familiar to the stun gun sales pitch. Maybe the real question, though, is why anyone would think anyone should be shooting students at schools with lasso guns in the first place. **READ MORE:** [This Company Wants to Sell High-Tech Lasso Weapons to Schools and Hospitals]() \[*Vice Motherboard*\] **More on "nonlethal" weapons:** [*Man Bursts Into Flames After Being Tased by Police*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()