Quote (fender @ Apr 5 2018 04:51pm)
you mean studies that showed how tasers are used very liberally BECAUSE they are non-lethal and it's easier than dealing with an unruly customer?
true, that has proven to be a problem - but that again comes down to bad training and lack of professionalism. in general it is a good tool if you want to stop someone without using lethal force...
Tasers are absolutely not for taking on someone who is rushing you.
Tasers do not stop people who already have momentum, tasers do not reliably disable people, tasers are quite ineffective at disabling someone who already had murderous intent.
Police tasers are intentionally not made strong enough to actually shock someone into submission because anything so powerful would be often lethal. When police used stronger tasers, it killed people. Which then got the police blamed.
Tasers are also ineffective simply by the restriction of their design: Prongs often fail to attach, they are bad at penetrating clothing, they can be easily ripped out. Where they hit someone matters. If you miss the single shot. If they fail to deploy. If they get snagged on surroundings. If they get shorted out. If there are multiple attackers. Etc etc down the line.
There are no magical non-lethal means to subdue dangerous targets. They don't exist. No weapons programs have ever developed anything thats reliable, portable, cheap, effective, and guaranteed non-lethal. Not tasers, not mace, not net-guns, not sonic devices, not microwave emitters, not russian poisonous knock-out gas. They all fail in one way or another. When someone is charging a police officer trying to bash their head in, the only reliable tool they have to stop them is hollow point bullets aimed center of mass to minimize chances of hitting bystanders.
This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 5 2018 05:26pm