re: #249 Charles Johnson

Yep, they used “burners,” all right, and when they said it they meant incendiary devices. That settles it.

It should be emphasized that the CS gas is produced in a combustion reaction within the grenade. That’s how you make it; there isn’t a little tank of gas inside or something. I do not believe there is such a thing as a non-incendiary CS grenade. As the gas is objectively more potent in its respiratory effects, it is not a foregone conclusion that the grenades were tossed because of their frequent incendiary side-effect.

In fact, this seems like an entirely likely possibility. They’re ‘burners’ in the vernacular because they make things burn and burning stuff is kinda cool, but they were thrown because they are more chemically potent.