Lawgiver (Judge Dredd) - Movie Versions

Movie Versions

In the film Judge Dredd the "Lawgiver Mark II" handgun is a voice-activated handgun with seven different kinds of ammunition. Its ammunition includes standard bullets, rapid fire (all types of ammo), explosive grenade rounds, the "double-whammy" (twin rounds fired simultaneously in different directions), armour piercing rounds and signal flares. It is somewhat visually different from the way it had been depicted in books.

Each individual round fired is tagged with the DNA code of the Judge to whom the weapon belongs, thus making identification of the shooter possible with the recovery of the slugs from a victim.

Instead of exploding when an individual other than a judge picks up the weapon it emits a very powerful, incapacitating (and often deadly) shock until the weapon is dropped.

In their movie review, The Santa Fe New Mexican described the Lawgiver as "the only interesting touch" in a movie that was otherwise "the worst kind of science fiction."

In the 2012 movie Dredd, a revised version of the Lawgiver II demonstrated seven types of ammunition, which again were voice activated : RAPID (Rapid fire FMJ (Full Metal Jacket), AP (Armour Piercing), INC (Incendiary), HI-EX (High Explosive) Hotshot, and Stun. Alike the comic, if an individual other than a judge picked up the gun, it self-destructed, incapacitating the wielder.