Killing People with Science Fiction's Non-Lethal Weaponry

My first encounter with the concept of non-lethal weapons was the Star Trek phaser. You could set a phaser to stun, or you could set it to kill and seriously vaporize a guy.  

But even in the Star Trek universe phasers set to stun could go wrong and then you'd hear those immortal words, "He's dead, Jim."

How could that happen? Well, people differ in their physiology and state of health. It's like giving people sedatives. A dose that would subdue a raging NFL player might kill a little old lady with a heart condition. The same thing happens with any kind of stunning weapon. Force that can stun a strong person will kill other people.

In real-world efforts to create stunning weapons (such as tasers), that is a problem. No stunning weapon yet made that is effective enough to stop most people is harmless to all people, and fatalities have resulted. In addition, some experimental non-lethal weapons can cause permanent damage to a person.

In science fictional worlds, the fatal possibilities of a stunning weapon are enhanced if the weapon is also used on various types of aliens. No one stunning weapon can work on every possible type of alien without killing some of them routinely.

A stunning weapon with multiple settings might deal with this problem. You might have your team leaders order phaser setting 1 for alien race A, and phaser setting 2 for alien race B. That will help, a little. But there will still be the possibility of killing when you don't intend to, and so you can't really use your non-lethal weapon routinely on folks you absolutely cannot kill for some reason.

What about a non-lethal 'smart weapon'?  It would scan the oncoming target and know exactly how much 'ooomph' to give to the stunning weapon. This would work to keep your stunning weapon stun-only. But the other implications of the technology must not be ignored.

You cannot, for example, have your 'smart weapon' stunner render aliens unconscious with precision, drag the unconscious alien to the sickbay, and have your ship's doc complain he can make no sense of the alien's physiology. Your smart weapon has already made sense out of that alien physiology in seconds. You can not have mystery aliens if you have 100% accurate non-lethal smart weapons.

In addition to the problem of your non-lethal weapon killing when not intended, there is an equal and opposite problem. You fire a stunning weapon at some raging maniac, and he doesn't go down. This is a major problem with real-world non-lethal weapons, and a reason why they are popular with policemen working in groups--- where some can carry more lethal weapons--- than they are for the lone person needing self defense. The last thing a vulnerable person wants to do is to get an attacker madder by firing an ineffective stunning weapon at them.

Your science fiction crew will, therefore, need lethal force as a backup, as in the Star Trek phaser which could be set to stun or to kill. Unless they are absolute pacifists in which case they will regularly experience casualties because of that stand.

What about non-lethal magical weapons/spells in fantasy worlds? Realism dictates that the 100% effective stunning spell/weapon would be unlikely. Now, if you have a fantasy world where only a tiny caste of wizards can do magic at all you might decide they can stun their enemies accurately--- but likely other wizards can defend against it. If, however, in your magical world any schoolchild with a magic wand can yell 'stupefy!' in an attempt to stun people, it is realistic to portray this stunning effort as variable in effect. The untrained child-wizard with indifferent level of Gifts might not achieve stunning effect at all, or do so only briefly, while the more trained person can stun effectively and for a sufficient amount of time to accomplish the goal.

Back to science fiction. If non-lethal weapons are so problematic, why have them at all? One major reason is the need to subdue people on board starships. You do NOT want to fire pistols on board the Enterprise and get the equipment damaged from stray bullets and shrapnel. A stunning weapon might at first be developed for shipboard use, and then migrate outward for situations where stunning is the only effective approach.

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