Danger: high voltage
A Times EditorialPublished May 3, 2005
When pressed to defend the safety of its electric shock guns, Taser International can always turn to one argument by default: The Tasers, now used by more than 135,000 law enforcement officers in 6,000 agencies, are less lethal than the alternative. That's certainly true, if officers use them only in cases in which they otherwise would have fired a gun, but it's also wholly irrelevant to the new market Taser is seeking.
As Taser tries to sell a 50,000-volt stun gun to every consumer with the money to buy one, it is inverting that hierarchy of lethal weaponry. Drug dealers are not about to trade in their Uzis for Tasers and families with loaded Glocks in their nightstands are not likely to seek less firepower to protect their homes. Instead, the target market will more than likely be people who want protection but fear guns.
In that sense, Tasers may well replace less lethal alternatives, such as fists in a barroom fight or a lamp in a domestic disturbance. They could end up as an extreme version of paintball war games or as part of a high-voltage fraternity hazing. Amnesty International already has documented several cases in which parents used Tasers against their own children, including a man in Texas who zapped his 8-year-old stepson to rush him along to school.
Just listen to Taser International president Thomas Smith, as quoted by the Chicago Tribune : "It's a huge potential market. I just can't get my arms around how big this can get."
Legislators and regulators ought to begin quickly getting their arms around how dangerous this could get. Since 1999, nearly 100 people have died after being hit by Tasers. The company argues that some of them died of unrelated causes, but no one should be under the illusion that these guns are toys. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in fact, was so concerned about their safety that it has rejected the use of Tasers. Florida law, however, does nothing to restrict their sale or use. Anyone can buy a Taser for any reason. No permit, no training, nothing.
These home Tasers are every bit as powerful as the ones used by police officers, as well. And to those who have witnessed police officers or company officials who willingly receive a jolt to demonstrate the safety, note one important distinction. The police Taser shocks for five seconds; the civilian version shocks for up to 30 seconds.
The anxious debate now taking place inside police agencies about whether Tasers are a sufficiently safe alternative will pale by comparison to the questions that are about to be raised by mass sales of unregulated, potentially lethal stun guns to the public. When people begin to Taser their neighbor for a noisy stereo, lawmakers will wish they had first set some ground rules. When someone dies as a result, neither company officials nor state regulators will easily absolve themselves of blame.