Staying Informed: Understanding the Issues About Tasers.

A very important, yet very unofficial poll has concluded that most people know very little about Tasers. 35% of people stated they know “some but not a lot,” 24% people said they know “not very much at all,” 17% claimed to know absolutely nothing, and another 24% could not care less about them. To be somewhat fair, let’s fudge the numbers a bit and assume that only 15% fall in the “not very much at all” category, and only 2% know “absolutely nothing,” and move that leftover 24% into the only category that originally applied to no one who responded to the survey, people who know “quite a bit.”

So less than half of half of people know “quite a bit” about Tasers, and 76% of people know a little bit or nothing at all. Is it disturbing to anyone else that of the people who are filing lawsuits, opposing possession of Tasers by law enforcement agencies, and pushing for legislation to ban Tasers altogether, a majority of them don’t even know what they’re talking about? They act on emotion, usually out of grief from the loss of a loved one who died after (but not necessarily because of) being stunned by a Taser. Or, even if it’s not someone who’s had personal experience with a Taser, and it’s someone who just happens to be passionate about weaponry, there is a 76% (and even that’s generous) chance that the person causing a ruckus is mostly ignorant of the research and effects of Taser weapons.

Remember, these aren’t scientific poll results, but they are representative of the group of people who will make or break the Taser industry: the consumers. The people who buy, or don’t buy, Tasers. The people who vote for the people who make the laws in our country concerning whether or not we even CAN buy a Taser. So isn’t anyone else concerned about the lack of awareness?

There has not been any other weapon mired in such controversy. Guns are pretty cut and dry; it’s not hard for medical examiners to determine if the cause of death is a gunshot wound. The same principle applies for blunt-force weapons – a baseball bat to the skull either kills you or it doesn’t. So it’s understandable that Tasers and other stun weapons be subjected to intense scrutiny; but what’s not understandable is that the people are looking to YouTube and random blogs for their “research.” Watching a video of someone being stunned by a Taser is a far cry from being informed. Hundreds of cases involving Taser-related injury or death (again, not necessarily caused by Tasers) show that every individual’s body could respond differently to the electrical currents put forth by Tasers. Such factors that affect a body’s response are pre-existing heart conditions, lung conditions, neurological and mental imbalance, drug use, state of mind, anxiety, and stress levels, to name a few. Certainly more factors will be uncovered as research continues.

The problem is that people are rushing to conclusions, as if none of us can go on living unless we know one way or the other that Tasers are safe or not. People want our police officers to be restricted from carrying them. One argument that surfaces time and again is that the reason they should be banned and guns don’t need to be is that officers use them too often because they are considered a safer alternative to using a gun. Perhaps that is true, but the answer to that is more training, not throwing out the thousands upon thousands of cases in which lives have been saved as a result of a Taser. Or in the case of civilians, classes should be required, as are for firearms, before receiving a permit to carry.

As long as we live, it will be impossible to please everyone. Someone will always oppose the law. But at least we can do ourselves a favor and make ourselves more knowledgeable about the causes we’re fighting for or against, or in the end it will be ignorance that takes more lives than Tasers.