Tasers Stun Both Supporters And Critics

Stun guns taser shoot their target with two small electrodes, connected to the main unit by conductive wire and propelled by small compressed nitrogen charges. The air cartridge contains a pair of electrodes and propellant for a single shot and is replaced after each use. A taser police officers use can incapacitate a person through five centimeters of clothing. Taser International says the electrical pulse is delivered at a high voltage because the electric current has to pass through clothing and air — neither of which are good conductors of electricity — to make a complete circuit with the target's skin. Taser International also says that while the device can deliver up to 50,000 volts, it does not deliver that much voltage to a person's body.

Studies on animals have shown that tasers can be extremely dangerous to the heart. In a recent study at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, a pig died three minutes after receiving a tasers stun. However, another study funded by the U.S. Justice Department showed that of 962 people shot with a taser, only two died, and researchers concluded the deaths were not related to the taser. In 1989, a Canadian study found that stun guns induced heart attacks in pigs with pacemakers. Ten years later, an American study concluded that weapons delivering a jolt weaker than those delivered by tasers, increased the risk of cardiac arrest in people with heart conditions.

Tasers are often used as an alternative to striking the suspect with a baton or shooting him with firearms, both of which could cause serious injury and death. While a stun gun taser shoots the target just once, beatings, bursts of pepper spray and bites from police dogs can have serious and prolonged effects. Studies have shown that tasers have helped to reduce the number of lethal force deaths reported by police.

There is no easy answer to the taser debate. While many police departments do educate officers on how to use tasers by providing taser training, there are no specific guidelines about when to use them. There is also no way for officers to tell if an individual is ill and cannot physically handle the voltage that a tasers stun inflicts.