Posted on 11/26/2004 7:08:07 PM PST by neverdem
Taser International, whose electrical guns are used by thousands of police departments nationwide, says that a federal study endorses the safety of its guns, but the laboratory that conducted the research disagrees.
Taser said last month that the government study, whose full results have not yet been released, found that its guns were safe. Since that statement, the company's stock has soared and its executives and directors have sold $68 million in shares, about 5 percent of Taser's stock and nearly half their holdings.
But the Air Force laboratory that conducted the study now says that it actually found that the guns could be dangerous and that more data was needed to evaluate their risks. The guns "may cause several unintended effects, albeit with low probabilities of occurrence," the laboratory said last week in a statement released after a symposium on Tasers, as the company's guns are known, and other weapons intended to incapacitate people without killing them.
Taser said Wednesday that it stood behind its October statement.
Other data presented at the symposium raised questions about one of Taser's key claims about the effectiveness of its newest and most expensive weapon.
Tasers are pistol-shaped weapons that fire electrified darts up to 21 feet, shocking suspects with a painful charge. More than 5,500 police departments and prisons now use Tasers, compared with only a handful five years ago.
Many police officers say that Tasers give them a way to restrain dangerous suspects without using firearms or fighting with them. But civil liberties groups say police often use Tasers on people who are merely unruly or disobedient, not dangerous. Recently, police officers in Miami shocked a 6-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl in separate incidents, prompting widespread criticism.
"The evidence suggests that far from being used to avoid lethal force, many police forces are using Tasers as a routine force option," said Curt Goering, senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International. "The way these weapons are being used in some circumstances could constitute torture or ill treatment."
Amnesty has called for police departments to stop using the guns pending an independent inquiry into their safety. The group will release a report next week documenting police abuse of Tasers, Mr. Goering said.
The growing use of Tasers is disconcerting because their risks have not been properly studied, biomedical engineers say. More than 70 people have died since 2001 after being shocked with Tasers, mainly from heart or respiratory failure.
Taser International says the deaths resulted from drug overdoses or other factors and would have occurred anyway. But coroners have linked several deaths to the weapons, and independent scientists who are authorities on electricity and the heart say that the company may be significantly underestimating the weapon's risks, especially in people who have used drugs or have heart disease.
Taser has performed only minimal research on the health effects of its weapons. Its primary safety studies on the M26, its most powerful gun, consist of tests on a single pig in 1996 and on five dogs in 1999. The company has resisted calls for more tests, saying that it is comfortable with the research it has conducted.
Tasers are largely unregulated and have never been studied for their safety or effectiveness by the Consumer Product Safety Commission or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. But for two years the Defense Department has studied Tasers as part of military research into weapons designed to be effective without being deadly.
In a press release on Oct. 18, Taser said that the military study had found its guns "generally effective without significant risk of unintended consequences."
Rick Smith, the chief executive of Taser, called the study "the latest chapter in a series of comprehensive medical and scientific studies which conclude that Taser technology is safe and effective."
Taser's stock, which closed at $37.47 on Oct. 15, the last trading day before the study was released, rose 60 percent over the next month and peaked at $60.85 on Nov. 15. During the week ended Nov. 12, Taser executives and directors sold 1.28 million shares for $68 million. The company's stock closed Wednesday at $50.51, down 89 cents.
But neither Taser nor the military released the full study, only an excerpt. The full study remains confidential, military officials say. But last week, after the symposium on less-deadly weapons in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Air Force laboratory that conducted the study said that it had not found Tasers were safe.
The guns "may cause several unintended effects, albeit with estimated low probabilities of occurrence," the laboratory said. "Available laboratory data are too limited to adequately quantify possible risks of ventricular fibrillation or seizures, particularly in susceptible populations."
Ventricular fibrillation is a disturbance of the electrical circuitry of the heart that causes cardiac arrest in seconds and death in minutes. Taser says that its weapons do not produce enough current to cause ventricular fibrillation, but scientists who are authoritative on fibrillation say that the company has not done enough research to know whether that contention is accurate.
Taser said Wednesday that the military had reviewed and approved its October statement before the company released it.
An Air Force scientist presented data at the symposium last week showing that repeated Taser shocks caused pigs to become acidotic - a dangerous condition in which the pH of the blood drops. A 1999 study by the Justice Department suggested that "deaths following Tasers' use may be due to acidosis."
People who have been hit repeatedly by Tasers should receive medical monitoring, said Dr. James Jauchem, the Air Force scientist.
A spokeswoman for the Air Force said Wednesday that Dr. Jauchem was on vacation for Thanksgiving and not available for additional comments.
Dr. Jauchem also presented data calling into question the company's assertion that the Taser X26, its newest gun, is especially effective even though it fires a smaller charge than the company's older weapon, the M26. Taser has said that the X26 fires a special kind of electric pulse that works better than traditional stun guns.
But Dr. Jauchem said the shape of the X26's electric pulse had only a minor effect on the amount of muscle contraction it produced.
Grew up building electronic hobby gear back in the tube days. Home made stereo, amateur radio and then on into the Navy working on EW equipment where Klystrons used 20K volts. Been my experience that people react differently to the same voltage. Can't explain it, but what can kill one person just tingles another. (yes I know it's the current that kills, and that might be the clue why people resopnd differently)
Good. Just shoot them then with a regular pistol.
There's a fairly good chance of injury and then no one will have to worry about tazer's statistically remote possibility that someone will be injured.
Having worked with a Jennings bottle, testing hardware up to 40KV, that discharged through my arm (accidentally mind you), it would be interesting to know what kind of current is discharged with the Taser. It's a shocking experience, not one that I would willingly choose to repeat...
It's definitely not the voltage, but the current!
I was working on one of our preamps on our WLR-1 which had a klystron at about 20K, they used a 10 ohm resistor as a "fusistor" back then. The ship took a roll I didn't expect and I touched one of the resistor which was mounted to make replacement easy, and it blew a hole right into my index finger. No blood or anything, but the smell of my burned flesh filled CIC. Still have a small circular scar on the tip of my index finger where it went into me.
The use of a 45 caliber loaded with 185JHP sounds good.
> Many police officers say that Tasers give them a way
> to restrain dangerous suspects without using firearms
> or fighting with them. But civil liberties groups say
> police often use Tasers on people who are merely unruly
> or disobedient, not dangerous.
This is the heart of this story (which is not a new story).
If tasers were only being used as an alternative to
discharging a firearm, the target is obviously safer
being tasered.
But because the taser is billed as "non-lethal" it is
being used in a wide variety of circumstances where
no firearms use is even contemplated.
That being the case, everyone needs to understand the
real risks, and the effects of these devices do not
appear to be well studied.
I have a relative who is a sheriff. His department has
tasers, and he often uses a hand-held zapper. He allowed
himself to be tasered just to know what it was like.
I daresay that makes him much more cautious about when
to use it.
Most law enforcement agencies which use Tazers conduct training exercises which include the trainee getting hit with a tazer shot. You've seen this on TV, haven't you?
(They do he same thing with mace.) The danger is absolutely insignificant, statistically.
How about someone with a bad heart, etc? He'd undoubtedly die from rough physical contact during an arrest situation anyway, if his heart was that weak. I recall, couple years ago, about a 300+ crazy man who was tazered and died afterwards. He had a bad heart, had taken PCP, but couldn't be controlled any other way. Initial outcry, but faded away quickly.
I think this round of tazer-bashing is the ACLU-type of thing....the cops are torturing citizens simply because they can, so do away with tazers, right?
Don't you know that the cops have to justify every use of tazers after the fact? There is a potential for abuse, but the same for old-fashioned brutality, which was not reported until someone complained.
Summary: The tazer is not dangerous (it's perfect, IMO); and it has no more potential for misuse and abuse than any other arrest tactic in use by police today.
The issue is, once again, all BS.
". Its primary safety studies on the M26, its most powerful gun, consist of tests on a *single pig in 1996 and on five dogs* in 1999."
Well that's it. Forget all the studies. PETA and their liberal allies will see the weapon is yanked from the LEO market.
Bring out the spitballs!
In the hands of terrorists, it is used to disable and capture people, in addition to disabling sentries.
In a small crowd, a platoon of troops can quickly be disabled and captured.
Police who believe that they are in control of a crowd, may quickly be disabled by members of the crowd, armed with Tasers.
No shots fired, by which to cause alarm. Not much other than some gurgling sounds from a few mic's.
Not good.
A taser is safer than a .38 slug. Period.
Ouch... When I was in junior high school, I learned that you need to discharge the high-voltage electrolytic capacitors before poking around in a circuit with your fingers, so I dutifully used a big screwdriver to short the plus terminal to the chassis. I got a much bigger spark than I expected, so just to be safe, I did it one more time - at which point I got another really big spark. Of course I was puzzled about what kind of super-capacitor I was dealing with that could retain so much charge, until I realized (duh!) that the thing was still powered on... I was about to stick my finger into the circuit, but luckily I had decided to discharge it that one more time...
For you who like to play with large voltage numbers for fun and giggles.
http://jnaudin.free.fr/lifters/main.htm
flight through electricity in your own shop.
Though having 28k volts go through my ( carelessly placed ) smoke is something I'll remember for quite some time. Did wonders for my respect too. :)
1. They ain't safe. See heart and drug problems.
2. There was a drunk fellow who held a gun to his head and threatened suicide. The cop tased him. Muscular reflex caused... well let's say the cop just helped him in his mission.
3. When a person is shot who needed killing, the LEO WILL be charged with MURDER. The ACLU, Amnesty, "Civil Rights" and other vermin will say, "the cop should have used a taser instead of deadly force." Unfortunately, the jury, non-LEOs, will agree when they hear how safe and effective tasers are. So when the poor cop is paying a fortune in legal, liability and other costs, gets fired and is imprisoned for doing his / her job, one just has to say, "how safe"?
Capsicum spray has fallen in preference because some are immune top its affects and the LEO can also be affected in its use. seems to me "tasers" are just about as useles. As with gun control. the MSM plays up legitimate uses of the taser as unnecessary. For example the 6 year old tased because he was going to injure himself with glass. Correct use but incorrect publicity. Guess who looses?
Hey, as long as EVERYONE can carry a taser, ok, fine. Cops, as First Salute pointed out, would think twice about wading into a crowd, clubs swinging, when they can be taken out, disarmed, and restrained silently.
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