ALS Technologies, Inc

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BULL SHOALS, AR - David Alvirez knows the danger of firearms. He knows the psychological and legal ramifications of shooting someone. A gunsmith who founded A.L.S. Technologies in 1996 in Bull Shoals, Arkansas, Alvirez had 23 years experience in military gunsmithing and award-winning shooting, including service with the Army's elite Delta Force and with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. He served in Panama, Granada, Korea and Saudi Arabia. Now Alvirez designs and manufactures non-lethal products which are sold primarily to law enforcement and security professionals. Alvirez has developed a less-than-lethal bullet product line, which he calls his "Power Punch." Delivering a blow similar to what one might get in martial arts, the Power Punch, he said, "is like being hit with the equivalent of a .32-caliber automatic but it's spread over such a larger area that it doesn't penetrate." It can knock a person out, he said. "Part of our statement is that it should never be aimed at the head." The bullet, for a 12-gauge shotgun, primarily has been used by law enforcement, he said, but it was his intention in developing it that it would be for home defense. "We thought we could provide an alternative to taking a life. If you use this bag, you can say, 'I've given it every chance.' The next shot is your normal lethal round. This is to take control of the situation so you can allow the authorities to get there. People's attitudes change once they've been hit with that amount of force. It's called attitude adjustment ammunition. " Alvirez is the son of a Green Beret - now 70, who carried the Olympic Torch in Raleigh, N.C. - who introduced his son to weaponry. David went into the service himself during Vietnam at the age of 17. He joined the 82nd Airborne Division (there were no openings for Green Berets then, he said) and went to jump school, spending a total of 15 years on and off with that division. His primary job was as weapons repairman. In late 1979 several of the men in his maintenance unit got into a shooting competition and, as a result, "I sort of changed my career." He was picked up by the 82nd Airborne's marksmanship unit. "Then they found out I was a gunsmith, so I was not only shooting but I was gunsmithing, too. They sent me to the National Match Gunsmithing School in Rock Island, Ill. and then I was doing National Match repair." That led to his being picked up by the Army Pistol Team. "And they found out I was a gunsmith," he said. "While I was there, in 1979, we had the Iranian problem, where we went in to try to get the hostages out and the five helicopters went down. It highlighted a shortfall within the maintenance arena in our Special Operations Division, so they were looking for the best National Match gunsmiths." He was interviewed by what is now known as Delta Force and was put on special duty with them. 'He did not wear the Green Beret', he said. He did weapons repair. "Sometimes they'd come up with a special requirement and we would sit down and draw stuff up and turn it over to the machinist. We did some pretty unique weapons combinations for the team.

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