Ferguson police are testing a new non lethal attatchemt for handguns.

It allows them to fire alloys 'ping pong balls' - which can bring a person down but not kill them.

This week, five instructors for the Missouri city's police department are training to use the device, called the Alternative.

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The orange device attaches to the top of a normal handgun and fires a bullet into the Ping-Pong-ball-sized projectile in front of the muzzle.

HOW IT WORKS The $45 Orange device that attaches to the top of a normal handgun. The product itself only weighs about 2 ounces and sits in a small pouch on their duty belt. The bullet embeds itself inside the projectile without a chance of escaping It mounts to the top of an officer's weapon within a second when the officer feels it's an appropriate lethal force situation It extends alloy Ping-Pong-ball-sized projectile in front of the muzzle Bullet embeds itself inside the projectile, firing it. Advertisement

The Ferguson Police Department, which reportedly intends to distribute the Alternative to all of its officers following training, found itself at the center of national debates over policing and race relations after then-Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown last August.

'The alternative was developed as a blunt force impact device to fill the void in lethal force situations, which until now could only be addressed with a firearm,' Alternative Ballistics, the firm which designed the weapon, said.

'Concerned with the number of deaths of officers and citizens resulting when confrontations occur, where a new lethal force option would have been preferred but not readily available, we developed the Alternative.

Christian Ellis, founder and CEO of Alternative Ballistics, told the Washington Post Ferguson police reached out to him after the city's assistant police chief, Al Eickhoff, took to Google and searched under the words 'less lethal.'

'It gives another option,' Eickhoff said of the device, which he later tested for himself, the Post said.

'I really liked it. . . . You are always looking to save a life, not take a life.'

However, when the Post asked Eickhoffis the $45 addon could have saved Michael Brown, he said:

'You could still shoot him with this round,' the assistant police chief said, 'and he could still get up and come at you.'

Ellis, the chief executive of Alternative Ballistics, said he started the firm to avoid needless citizen deaths.

The rough concept was developed several years ago by a retired sheriff's officer from whom Ellis said he bought the patent.

'Ask a police officer what are the options when lethal force is justified, and he'll say, 'I have my gun and my bullets,' ' said Ellis, 32, who recently began marketing the Alternative in the United States and abroad as an 'an air bag for a bullet.'

It mounts to the top of an officer's weapon within a second when the officer feels it's an appropriate lethal force situation

'This technology represents a critical 'missing link' between lethal force and less-lethal force,' the firm claims.

'By utilizing our bullet capture technology in appropriate situations police are likely to prevent loss of life to the public at large in a way that was – until now – not possible.

The Alternative is a small orange device that attaches to the top of a normal handgun and extends a Ping-Pong-ball-sized projectile in front of the muzzle.

However, critics have pointed out the Alternative resembles a clown's nose.

'The Bozo Bullet,' one critic called it.

The Alternative is a small orange device that attaches to the top of a normal handgun and extends a Ping-Pong-ball-sized projectile in front of the muzzle.

After traveling through the barrel, the bullet embeds itself inside the alloy projectile, and the docking unit immediately detaches from the weapon.

'Once the gun is fired, the bullet embeds itself inside the projectile without a chance of escaping, simultaneously transferring the bullet's energy as it propels it toward the target.

'Once the bullet is fired from the gun into the projectile, they permanently become one unit.'

This process decreases the bullet's velocity and dampens its impact.

The bullet, then, should not pierce a human's skin and cause the type of internal damage that would kill the person.