From the Washington Post blog! Art
Tased and Confused
LAS VEGAS--My "best product demo" award for this year's CES has to go to Taser International, the manufacturer of those hand-held stun guns. At its booths, volunteers could sign up to get Tased at a low voltage. I had the fortunate timing to show up as one such individual was signing the fine-print-packed waiver form required for this demonstration.
The man, a reporter for some Norwegian news outlet, stood as a company rep affixed a wire leading to a Taser. The rep pulled the trigger, and the man crumpled to the floor, cursing in pain.
Taser was also showing off the latest version of its C2 personal-use stun gun. This $350 device now comes in even more colors--red, pink and leopard print. (The last option adds $25 to the purchase price.) And C2 owners will soon be able to purchase an accessory for it called the MPH, short for Music Playing Holster. This leather case includes an MP3 player with 2 GB of storage.
Here is what one police officer said online about the civilian access to tasers:
"maplemac283
01-14-2004, 04:55 PM
As a police officer, this scares the crap out of me. When I go to do an arrest attempt I am ALSO going to have to worry about being tazed and having my weapon stripped? They have got to be kidding. The FOP is already talking boycotting all Taser products... This is going to be bad bad PR for their company. Stay tuned. I can tell you its gonna be deadly force if someone pulls a taser out on me.
" http://forums.officer.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-20719.html
I think "helpless women" are less likely to buy the taser than criminals. Think of what a great holdup tool it would be.
I wonder if the company can be sued for criminal misuse of their product
