TASERS

Tasers, or stun guns, are thought of as electric rifles. They are weapons that give out an electric shock. The TASER, more precisely called, Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle, was developed in 1969 and named after a 1911 science fiction hero, Thomas A. Swift. It is used at the close range of 15-20 ft. to subdue attackers or criminals and it has been in use by police forces in America officially, since 1993

People all over the world in various capacities have found TASER technology to be appealing because the TASER is not used with the intention of killing a person, just to deter them or stop them in their tracks. But while some people consider them to be harmless, advertisers claim they have “more stopping power than a 357 magnum.” TASERS work by producing a high voltage electric shock and discharging it on the target.

The gun actually shoots probes, propelled by nitrogen, and when the probes hit a target, the gun fires an electric pulse that travels through the attached wires to the target. When a person is the target and they are hit, they loose voluntary control of the main skeletal muscles causing them immobility and possible collapse.

The TASER is supposed to be carefully designed not to stop the heart or cause significant burns or other injuries typically associated with electrical shock, but they do actually do send forth a lot of electricity and they do cause a lot of pain to the recipient that is hit. Additionally, injuries like broken bones and concussions do occur when the subject hit with the electric shock is falling down. Controversy arises over the use of a taser because they are intended not to "kill" the individua but the reality is that police who use TASERS encounter all sorts of people, in all sorts of situations, in their line of work. They may shoot someone who has a medical condition, like heart conditions or epilepsy, someone who is taking prescription medications for which an incapacitating electric shock of this nature can affect adversely, even kill. It is quite possible that police officers can shoot someone with a TASER, something that is not supposed to kill them, and yet they die.

You have to know too that it's not just the police who are interested in the use of a device like the TASER. Criminals are interested too. They can commit a crime and not actually kill a victim, get a lesser sentence because they are not charged with murder if they get caught. The average person on the street is interested in it too as a means of personal protection against would be muggers or or vicious dogs. Even government border patrols are considering the use of TASER-like mines to help deter illegal immigration.

How interesting that this idea of a non-lethal implement of using force is appealing to our senses. It appears as a kind and gentler way to deter crime, and promises that it can be used confidently to control human conflict neatly, without anything horrifying like death or bloodshed.