Federal Laboratories

Federal Laboratories (often FedLabs or Federal Labs) was a company that manufactured tear gas and less-lethal riot guns, including the popular Federal Riot Gun, based in Pittsburgh and established in the early part of the 20th century.

History of use

Civil order in the United States

In the 1930s, custom gas guns by FedLabs were adopted by the New York Prison department, following a sales pitch made before the APA by the president of FedLabs in Baltimore in 1931.

Also in the 1930s, Federal Laboratories actively worked to sell gas guns for the purpose of strikebreaking. One FedLabs representative fired a tear gas grenade during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike that caused the death of a striker due to skull fracture. Auerbach notes, however, that despite FedLabs stated opposition to "communist" strikers, the firm continued to sell tear gas to the Soviet Union even during 1933.

World War II

During World War II, the company's factory near Saltsburg, PA along Tunnelton Road employed women to replace drafted male workers. There the women produced "incendiary magnesium powder bombs, grenades and other munitions", including FedLabs tear gas grenades.

Northern Ireland

The single shot FRG became the standard riot gun used extensively by the British Army throughout The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Israel

FedLabs gas guns, and CS and CN grenades, were imported by Israel for use in the Palestinian Territories; in 1988 FedLabs discontinued sales of CS and CN to Israel following multiple reports of abusive use of the products.

2011 Bahraini protests

Inspired by the regional Arab Spring, Bahrain's Shia majority started large protests against its Sunni rulers in early 2011. The government initially allowed protests following a pre-dawn raid on protesters camped in Pearl Roundabout. A month later it requested security assistance from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and declared a three-month state of emergency. The government then launched a crackdown on the opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests and systematic torture.Law, Bill (6 April 2011)
"Police Brutality Turns Bahrain Into 'Island of Fear
'' Crossing Continents'' (via BBC News). Retrieved 15 April 2011. Almost daily clashes between protesters and security forces led to dozens of deaths.Carlstrom, Gregg (23 April 2012)
"Bahrain court delays ruling in activists case"
Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 14 June 2012. Protests, sometimes staged by opposition parties, were ongoing. More than 80 civilians and 13 policemen have been killed .
According to Physicians for Human Rights, 34 of these deaths were related to government usage of tear gas originally manufactured by U.S.-based Federal Laboratories.

Sale and fate

In March 1994, TransTechnology sold FedLabs to Mace Security International, which subsequently sold the company in 1998 to Armor Holdings. Armor holdings was in turn acquired by BAE Systems in 2007.

References

{{reflist

Defunct firearms manufacturers of the United States
Non-lethal weapons