A man-portable non-lethal pressure shield provides both a physical as well as pressure shield. The pressure shield addresses the concerns of military, police and human rights organizations and international law as regards effectiveness, efficiency and safety and efficiency. A folded acoustic horn is incorporated into the physical shell of the shield. The horn couples acoustic pulses from a sonic pulse generator to an acoustic aperture to output a pulsed pressure beam that approximates a plane wave to produce a pressure barrier. The operator may specify a desired effect on its human target that is maintained as range-to-target changes or a desired effect at a specified perimeter range. The shields may be networked to facilitate coordinated action among multiple pressure shields as a force multiplier or to provide a more sophisticated pressure barrier.