Stun Gun Laws Are Changing in Canada

There has been an outcry in Canada to restrict the use of stun guns by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and their outcry has been heard, though not in the way that some would have wanted. An officer can still use a stun gun, but just not as often. Now, they have to use them responsibly.

Out of the past 5000 uses of stun guns by Canadian officers, at least 20 people have died because of the stun guns. Many of them were in poor health to begin with, but citizens of Canada were worried about a bigger problem. While worried about the deaths, they were more concerned with how the police were treating people.

On October 14, 2007 a Polish man was zapped with a stun gun by police. While he was acting irate, video footage shows that the police didn’t even try talking to the unarmed man before using their stun guns. The police zapped him and he fell to the ground, screaming in pain. But then the police zapped him again.

There is an issue of ethics that needs to be addressed here, I think. I am a firm believer that police should most definitely be allowed to use a stun gun. But I also believe that no one, including a police officer, should attack an unarmed person. This was a huge issue in Canada because between 2002 and 2005 the Canadian Press reported that 75% of everyone the police had stunned had been unarmed.

The Canadian laws have been changed so that their police are only to use stun guns when other means, like speaking to the suspect, have failed.

Stun guns are great tools of self defense and they have helped many people. I really do believe that police should use them, but I also think they should try to use their mouths first.