You see, you’ve just spoilt the thread by invoking common sense.

Can a Mod lock this now, please?

Never said anything about it killing anyone/anything, but it f*cks you up, as some of the soldiers in the early days over here found out

No, it doesn't. It's a myth. Powdered glass is sand, as was pointed out.
Broken glass is a different matter.

Calcium Carbonate will do naff all unless you also happen to have some fairly strong acid kicking about (Hydrochloric, Sulphuric or Nitric for instance). If you have that sort of stuff then they would be quite effective on their own without having a bit of fizzy to go with them.

But I've seen the powdered glass thing in films. It must be true.

I've met peelers who worked with the soldiers who ingested it, there was no reason for anyone to lie about it. Put it this way, it wouldn't be like the Provos and their supporters to have wasted their time either

So, it's a friend of a friend story then?

Almost as bad as "The man down the pub said..."

Not even that, but I still don't have any reason not to believe it, and I've seen/heard it in accounts of the Troubles too

I've just read online that ingesting powdered glass as a poison is a myth. They said for the fragments to be small enough to ingest without noticing they wouldnt be of any size to be able to cause damage.

Now forcing someone to eat shards, thats a different matter

Rail Gun?

Nail gun. Not as much fun, but definitely more portable

Ion cannon?

You have to love Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_cannon

I remember at the time of Eraser's release a magazine article saying that rail guns were thought to exist but were usually being transported on American warships, were a lot bigger than the film's, and that even Arnie may have trouble swinging one about

You could always really piss the American army off, blame the dog, and get them to drop a few missiles on top of it?