system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Ghostbusters] Why don't they just make their guns function like their trap?

It seems counterintuitive to have to wrangle a ghost when you could focus on a technology that sucks them in directly.  In the show, the beam of light emanating from the traps have been shown to have quite the reach and pull.  And the ghostbusters have to let go of their proton streams anyway to trap the thing.

If they made a t-shirt cannon sized device that just mimic'd the traps properties, wouldn't they have skipped an unnecessary step and not damaged property at the same time?
gpt
> In the show, the beam of light emanating from the traps have been shown to have quite the reach and pull. 

Not really. Ghosts in mid-trap tend to pull themselves off every time a proton pack breaks. The trap simply cannot suck hard enough to satisfy the Ghostbusters. Only after tugging a ghost close to its mouth can Egon be certain that the trap will finish the job.

Also, a trap cannot be used again unless it first dumps its load, preferably inside of a waiting containment unit. Ray often warms up several traps for this reason but this can be cumbersome and usually isn't necessary. By carefully aiming the streams a single trap can easily swallow multiple servings of ectoplasm.