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Ok, let me inject my opinions, as someone who has gone through Taser training and is certified to carry them on duty.

Tasers make great defensive weapons IF the person knows exactly what she will do when the taser stops. They only work if you have a plan of action for them. This includes getting to a phone and whether or not to let the person go or re-tase him or restrain him or what.

BTW, this is the same question i have for those of you who have pepper spray for use at home. What are you going to do after you spray him? Both of these tools are great on the street where the object is to give us time to get out of the area (Taser can almost guarantee 30 seconds if used as designed), but the tactics of home defense is immensely different. BTW, the same question applies with a firearm, but usually the answer then is the suspect will run or bleed out.

I would recommend a taser over pepper spray for home defense (firearm first of course). It is only good against one person at a time, but it does a very good job of stopping that one person. Then have a plan to keep him on the ground by hitting the trigger as necessary while you get to a phone and call 911.

As for the one shot deals, that was the origianlly planned civilian version, but i think they went with a reloadable Taser instead. In both cases, you can shoot one person (only one set of probes comes out) but you can hit the trigger as many times as you need to, if you need to re-shock the suspect. Then you can buy a spare cartridge to reload the Taser for the next time. I recommend having a spare cartridge or two in the house in case something happens to the one in the gun (sometimes the doors fall off them and they lose their probes).

I must admit that I know little about Tazers, but my concern would be the quick recovery and the tendacy for mopes to wear leather or thick clothing like hooded sweatshirts. Are the probes going to penetrate the typical badgay garb? ( are druggies cold blooded?). My other thought is that Pepper spray would provide more time to escape, get a gun, club, knife etc. and you get a second shot if you miss or there is more than one perp.Pepper spray is also cheaper and more available. The downside, as I see it, is that it can be hard to aim if one gets backspray and is bawling like a baby.

Th

Taser gun is better than nothing. My wife doesnt want a gun but is interested in one of these. I'm encouraging her to get one. Saw the darts from a fired one at Academy, I wouldnt want one of those stuck in me let alone the volts into my body.

Funny thing about taser weapons...

About 8 years ago, I was on my way into work at NASA/JSC down here, and had just made a left off of Hwy 3 onto Bay Area Blvd...The first light down Bay Area I caught the light, and was just sitting their minding my own bidness and out of the corner of my eye to the right a happened to catch the first glimps of a naked man running across the street there behind me into the median area being chased on foot by 3 HPD officers...

Well the naked guy didn't make it to far past there because what I thought was a firearm coming up on the guy was in fact a taser...He got both barbs!

I have to say the system works, and that the naked guy looked like a slab of thick bacon frying on a hot skillet...

Anyway, I proceeded on into work only to find out later that the naked guy was a Russian scientist/technician (on loan to NASA) that had had a little bit too much adult beverages the night before and was still rather...ummmm...Not in control of his faculties or clothing...

I would summise that tasers do work really well if there are no clothes to get in the way of the barbs there...I can attest to how well they work...

I know that devices like this are available to non-law enforcement folks, but I'd probably rather spend $1000 on something else in the long run...

I know I still like my bacon, but I couldn't stand to watch it being cooked from that point on...

srothstein wrote:As for the one shot deals, that was the origianlly planned civilian version, but i think they went with a reloadable Taser instead. In both cases, you can shoot one person (only one set of probes comes out) but you can hit the trigger as many times as you need to, if you need to re-shock the suspect.

Only as long as the battery lasts. TASER has charts on their website that tells how many charges you get.

One thing nobody has mentioned about the tazer is that if you mis the target with one or both probes it still makes a very effective weapon as a contact stun gun.

I saw the pink taser from the article at Academy last nite!! The wife carries Fox spray and she said she wouldn't mind having one of the pink tasers too. I'm hoping I can work her up to the AR with pink furniture soon.

-Rug

I've seen a Taser deployed by LEO on several occasions. Most of the time the shock (no pun intented - again) of the first jolt takes the fight of of the target. (I read something about people falling down after being shot (with a bullet) because there is a notion that this is what a person does after getting shot) I'll never name him but a few years ago I heard an officer on the radio very calmly request backup, (but not high priority) and a supervisor because he "had one tased".
Since I was concerned about him, close to his location, and very nosey I went to his location. There he was, sitting on the front bumper of his patrol car, smoking a cig. with one hand and holding his taser with the other. Flat on the ground in front of him was a bad guy who had resisted arrest. It was kind of surreal. The officer would take a puff, let off the trigger of the taser and the BG would just sit right up. The officer would instruct him to lay down on the ground. The bad guy was saying "I'm trying to do it" but in fact was attempting to stand up. Then the officer would give him anouther jolt and he would be flat on his back again. I couldn't help laughing as I watched this repeated time after time. I don't know how many jolts you get per charge but this guy was going for the record! The magic of all this was that the officer was in complete control, never in danger, and able to calmly wait for backup. Before Tasers were deployed he would have had to wrestle this guy to the ground and who knows what might have happened. He might not have even had a chance to get to his radio.
I guess my point to this (other than sharing the humor) is that the bad guy was able to get right back up as soon as the officer let go of that trigger, and us ordinary citizens might not have the chance to call for back up. And have a nosey wrecker driver come over to watch...and jump in in needed