After the riots in Mong Kok in 2016, the police introduced a new equipment "Pepper Ball Gun". The tear gas launcher on the gun is powered by compressed gas, with an effective range of about 30 to 50 meters and can hold about 160 pepper balls. Pepper balls contain specially made capsaicin, which will explode and spread pepper spray when hitting human body. The gas can penetrate clothes, making the shot person feel hot in the skin and respiratory tract, and will be stimulated to cry, leaving bruises and red marks on his body, which is convenient for the police to lock the target person and arrest him later.
Pepper ball gun is regarded as a non-lethal weapon, but according to the instructions for use, it must be avoided to shoot at the face, throat and other parts. In 2004, a female student in Boston, USA, was hit in the eye by a pepper ball and died of massive bleeding.