Deaths from tasers in last five years - 156
Source - Amnesty International.


"Tasers have been used in the US against pregnant women, unruly schoolchildren and mentally ill people. In some cases, simply walking away from a police officer has led to people getting a 50,000 volt electric shock. Is this a glimpse into the future of UK policing? We want an assurance from the Home Office and police chiefs that tasers will only be issued to trained firearms officers and kept locked in the firearms box. Tasers could kill, so they must be treated as lethal weapons."
Amnesty UK Director Kate Allen


"The vast majority of people who have died after being struck by Tasers have been unarmed men who did not pose a threat of death or serious injury when they were electro-shocked. In many cases, they did not appear to have posed any significant threat at all”.
Amnesty Internation Public Statement, 2007


It's not the tasers - it's the idiots who have been given a uniform and a taser.

Oh, well yeah. I hold no doubts that the woman was overreacting. The pain ceases INSTANTLY as soon as the charge stops. There's absolutely no reason to be screaming like that.

Charliem:
You're wrong. Voltage has nothing to do with plays only a small part in killing someone. Ever touch a live wire in your house? Hurts like a bitch, huh? That's only 120V (for America, 240 elsewhere). A taser on the other hand, sends out 50,000 volts. You could get hit with a million volts and not die if the amperage is not there. It also depends on what you're resistance is to electrical charge. Of course this lowers when you get wet. The Taser simply does not have the amperage necessary to kill you "instantly."

Furthermore, it does not have "two settings." The only thing the user can change is the duration of the shock. It does have two functions, however. Either use the cartridge and shoot from up to 15ft, or take off the cartridge and use it by direct contact.

Look, I'm not talking out of my ass here. I've been trained in riot control and the implementation of less-than-lethal and non-lethal weapons technologies.

If you want to know more, go the the manufacturer's site at http://www.taser.org/m18.html

Personally, I'm more than a bit skeptical about non-lethal weapons. The connotation "non-leathal" lowers the inhibitance to actually make use of the weapon. Plus, I've read that weapons get rated as "non-leathal" if the lethality is under 30%.

I'm really looking forward to the uninhibited use of microwave crowd controllers on peaceful demonstrations by some powerhungry idiot with the finger on the button.

Funny, I was going to sift this myself until I discovered a that it would have been a doop.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Non-Lethal-Weapon-The-ADS-Heat-Gun

Poop.

my top 5:

Bullitt - look at the chase scene camerawork, before & after, this film. it's a little like watching buddy action movies, before & after Lethal Weapon.

French Connection - you have no idea, what it took, for that scene to be filmed. unless you DO know what it took, which is like 5 ppl here including me, in which case you know what i'm sayin'.

To Live And Die In L.A. - Friedkin does it again.

any chase scene from any of the Mad Max flicks

Blues Brothers - also funniest chase scenes ever

>> ^quantumushroom:
It's hard to tell if the guy wearing the MASK over his face appreciates the officer's speech. I know they don't agree with the officer that America is the greatest country in the world.
Tasers are used against people high on drugs and drink, people throwing rocks or barriers at cops and anyone attempting to incite a riot. Tasers were invented as a humane alternative to choke holds, rubber bullets and batons.
The Taser inventors deserve a Nobel Prize and liberals should praise this awesome invention since people Tasered and not shot live and go on through our revolving-door jails and prisons.


Every time you see a weapon that is non-lethal you should question it. Non-lethal weapons aren't used in war, they're used internally so you don't kill your own proles.

It's nice to see a friendly officer but it may be a new strategy... Preaching at a group of people uninterupted for an extended period of time would take the fight out of them. It would also make the police look good.

Yea... who are these monsters? Coming up with non lethal weapons, when bullets are so inexpensive and plentiful.

While actually shooting fewer people is awesome, we've seen from how tasers have turned out that cops get trigger-happy when they see it as having no permanent consequences. Meaning that the taser has and this heat gun will become almost the immediate go-to, before conversation.

And I'm sure it'll be used for crowd control, and such, if people try to gather and protest in non-free-speech zones.

Yea... who are these monsters? Coming up with non lethal weapons, when bullets are so inexpensive and plentiful.

Clearly the nail gun from lethal weapon should be in there somewhere.

Wait, wait, wait. Easy now. This isn't the VHS vs. Beta war. This is a different beast altogether. HDDVD is solid, and Blu-Ray has some catching up to do, but it's hype that's making Blu-Ray seem like the winner in this march of tech. Currently, there are only two Blu-Ray players that are worth your money. That's the PS3 and their really high end machine (not sure what the nomenclature is for this machine or machines). HDDVD also has its worthless 720 and 1080i players available for the common market just as Sony does, but their 1080p higher end machines are very affordable. And every HDDVD player has a great price point compared to Blu Ray.

When Sony released its Blu-Ray technology, they put way too much money into developing that blue ray laser and high capacity disc so they didn't spend money on the codec. When released to market, HDDVD had a high-def codec and Sony was using MPEG-2. Yes, MPEG-2. The same shit you have on your standard def DVDs. Ouch! That technology is what? 20 years old? Because of bad press, they had to switch to a better codec, so imagine the spendthrift involved with that! Now, imagine how much less money they had on making their system actually good. So, what's the problem now? Well, aside from the shitty systems available, they also have update problems. You see, all of Toshiba's systems are supposed to have Ethernet capabilities, so updating the firmware is a piece of cake. Sony systems? Nope. You better be prepared to shill out some major doe for that added feature. So, there is a high chance that SOME of the Blu Ray DVDs will NOT play on some Blu Ray DVD players because they're incapable of updating their firmware. Ain't that a bitch? I hope Sony figures this out, but chances are they won't, and even if they do, that's more of a crippling blow to their chances to "corner the market" than you think.

But, if you have a PS3, you're sitting pretty (from my insider news). It's a better purchase than a straight Blu-Ray DVD Player purchase. That's just silly, no?

That aside, HDDVD isn't just Toshiba. It's Microsoft, too. Microsoft created the programming infrastructure called iHD, which I've programmed in, so if you ever step out to Best Buy and purchase yourself a copy of Under Siege, Blazing Saddles or Lethal Weapon in HDDVD format, then you'll be buying my handy work. I've worked on other WB titles, but those are the titles I programmed myself. What are you waiting for, fellow Sifters. Buy my shit! I make NO money off of them!

the overuse and abuse of tasers is disgusting. a great non-lethal weapon when used properly, but this is unfortunately not always the case.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I would rather they used pot for a non-lethal weapon. I'm thinking giant bong canons mounted on riot trucks.

I wouldn't be totally against LSD being used in the arsenal of non-lethal weapons. The collateral damage would be cut down quite a bit, so long as dosage was moderated and it's use wasn't specifically for a civilian population. You'd probably see more AK-47s with flowers in the barrels as a result.

How dare you QM! How dare you make fun of lethal weapon 2. That was the last great movie in the series, it took the great things in the first one and expanded it. Diplomatic immunity, genius. I am insulted that you would even lump it in with its shitty counter parts 3 and 4

Glover couldn't rescue Lethal Weapon 2, 3 and 4.

Since he's good buddies with tyrant Hugo Chavez, maybe he can bend Chavez's jug ear to let Venezuela's future political dissidents out of prison.