Police departments across the country are embracing the continued use of stun guns and receiving additional funding for these alternative self-defense weapons. In fact, the accidental death of a 24-year old man who had been subdued with a stun gun in April has not deterred Columbus, Ohio police from continued use of Taser stun guns – a move seen repeatedly throughout law enforcement country-wide.

Law enforcement departments are, of course, interested in making sure that stun gun use is safe in the interest of public safety and well being. Likewise, medical examiners and physicians are resoundingly reporting their findings that stun guns are generally safe, which supports their increased use by law enforcement to increase public safety.

An organization of medical directors from twenty-five of the United States’ largest cities is also preparing to release a paper to make known their position on the issue of stun gun use by law enforcement. A direct quote from a draft of that organization’s official position states, Taser use “appears relatively safe, particularly when compared to other law enforcement weapons.”

Medical professionals as a whole have encouraged on-going research to support law enforcement’s position, while often citing a national study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice in which 1,000 cases were reviewed and 99.7% of individuals subjected to a Taser stun gun received minor injuries (scrapes and bruises, primarily) or absolutely no injuries at all.

A Taser fires a barb that delivers an electric shock, briefly incapacitating dangerous and uncooperative suspects. So where, twenty years ago, suspects were being transported to hospitals with lacerations from baton use or with gunshot wounds –that’s rarely happening anymore.