Stun guns for everyone? Taser fires up debate

It wasn't supposed to be this way. When first pitched to police a decade ago, stun guns and particularly Tasers — the brand most widely used — were heralded as a way to deal with violent individuals without killing them.

Police embraced the weapons at first. But over the years, 103 people have died in North America after being shocked with stun guns, according to a review by Amnesty International. Now, Taser International's safety claims are the subject of a federal inquiry and police departments nationwide are reviewing procedures.

Earlier this month, the International Association of Chiefs of Police urged caution and offered guidelines for using stun guns, including training programs for police.

It's against this backdrop, and the fact that its stock price fell by two thirds after a record high last year, that Taser International has launched a campaign to sell Tasers to civilians. It has come out with a much smaller yet more powerful civilian stun gun and is building a national dealer network, starting with Davidson's Inc., a major gun distributor that's the first to carry Taser's civilian model.

But whether Tasers in civilian hands is a good idea is up for debate. Some police worry about civilians misusing them, while Amnesty International wants an outright ban. "It's a patently bad idea," says Amnesty spokesman Ed Jackson.

And some medical experts want more studies to fully determine if an electrical shock can itself be a significant factor in deaths. The documented deaths have involved at least one of the following factors: suspects who were high on drugs or who had heart conditions, and police using batons or other physical force to subdue suspects once stunned. It's not clear if stun gun use played a contributing role given those other factors.

Company's perspective
Taser executives say that a new $1,000 civilian model of the weapon, which like the police version fires two electrically wired darts that deliver 50,000 volts, is safe and will deter crime, not worsen it.

Anyone who's wary about the technology simply hasn't used it or doesn't understand how it works, said Steve Tuttle, Taser's vice president of communications.

FREE VIDEO Police & tasers Feb. 11: When should police use tasers? Chicago police are among those reviewing policy after two incidents: the death of a man and the cardiac arrest of a 14-year-old. NBC’s Kevin Tibbles reports. Nightly News

To start with, he said, sales of an earlier civilian model introduced in 1994 topped 100,000 and there's been no epidemic of civilian misuse.

Tasers are safer than other stun guns, he said, because they are the only one that can be fired from a distance; others require actually jabbing the recipient.

In an effort to keep felons or anyone on the U.S. terrorism watch list from buying the weapons, Taser's new civilian model requires buyers to  register their guns and undergo background checks, Tuttle said.

In addition, the model has a built-in tracking device: 20 to 30 tiny red metal flakes called "ID tags" that disperse when the gun is used. The tags are hard to see, and each tells who the gun and cartridge are registered to. Removing the tags disables the $30 cartridge that houses the darts.

Responding to concerns that stun guns can cause deaths, Tuttle said that "medical examiners are clearing us in a vast majority of cases" and compared such fears to those about pepper spray in the 1990s, before that tool became widely accepted.

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