I think the belts only work well on weapons with a stable platform. The M60 uses a belt clip but I think it's probably the smallest machine gun to use one. And you've got to set it up on it's little front end bi-pod to maintain stability, despite what Hollywood shows with Rambo types 'popping off' with an M60 from the hip. In real life those belts can easily tangle and jam a weapon.

I would think regular paint ball guns (not the fire ball type you describe, which are quite nasty as you say) would be useful for crowd control. Let everyone in the mob know that they run the risk of being marked if they don't disperse and then if they are found to have the paint on them they will be arrested and prosecuted. Kind of takes away the anonymity mobs provide.

Frankly, I am delightd that my nasty ideas would prove impractical as I am not happy about hurting people. But I cannot keep ideas out of my head. But your idea of paint guns for identity is interesting. Perhaps an ultra-violet dye shot by the police at a fleeing car would make it easy to identify the car with an ultra-violet searchlight at night.

An invisible paint ball to mark heads of government for satellite attack is quite brilliant. Just make sure that satellites can see the criminals through the roofing materials of the white house where they live.

Those "mobs" we're worried about are called "the people"... like in "the constitution"... Better we let scum like A$$croft work on such draconian means to destroy our liberties... why help the bastard.

The belt-fed machine gun used by Rambo and other fictional warrior/vigilantes is usually an M30, not an M60. The M30 is a lighter .30 cal weapon, cosmetically similar to the M60 but a bunch lighter. It can be belt-fed or clip-fed, but in either case, as with the M60, much more accurate when used with a tripod or bipod.

The paintball idea is very similar to a grenade launcher, only sized down. You want your grenade launcher to have sufficient range that you don't get involved in the explosion yourself, so the paintball isn't such a good idea.

Not to worry, there are legions of weapons researchers whose purpose in life is to make life much more dangerous for the enemy, much safer for our own soldiers. I am confident that warfare will continue to be bloody and messy and increasingly horrifying- although at one point in my life, I didn't think there could ever be anything more horrifyingly lethal than napalm.

I think one of the problems with belt fed weapons aside from the obvious one that they are prone to jamming when the belt misfeeds, the other problem is that on some belt fed weapons if you fire a lot of rounds through them quickly the barrel heats up and the weapon can jam from this.The barrel is usually swapped for a spare but you are vulnerable while you are doing the switchover.

I remember seeing (in films) machine guns (perhaps called the gatling gun) with a multiple revolving barrel to promote cooling which would be too heavy to be hand held, but perhaps a three barrel gun might be manageable on a heavy hand weapon.

Rambo used an M60. I've never heard of an M30, and I know my guns. The M60 is obsolete and has been replaced by the M240, which is a variant of the Belgian FN MAG. The smallest belt-fed machinegun in current use by the US Armed Forces is the M249, which is a variant of the FN Minimi. This weapon uses the same ammo as the M16 rifle and can also use standard M16 magazines instead of belts if desired. It's a little larger and quite a bit heavier than the M16. It's quite popular and if you watch the news from Iraq you will see soldiers running around with them frequently.

The napalm ball gun is a nifty idea, but I suspect people would say that it violates the Geneva convention or something. Incendiary bullets are made for larger guns such as .50 caliber machineguns, but are not allowed in smaller calibers because of the question of their legality under the Geneva convention. Anyway, it would need a source of ignition, maybe an ingredient that reacts spontaneously upon contact with oxygen. There are paint balls available to American law enforcement agencies that contain capsicum pepper powder and other nasty chemical agents.