Stun Guns might Kill People so Cops Review

Yahoo! News - Deaths prompt concerns, reviews on use of stun guns

Stun gun or Tazer use by police resulted in over 80 deaths so far and the Chiefs of Police, the Justice Department and even the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are all conducting their own reviews to decide if this weapon should be used by law enforcement in the future. The chiefs of police support the use of this non lethal weapon, yet the SCLC is calling for a moratorium on their use until further testing can be done to make them safer.

Last week, Chicago police stopped distribution of a hundred units to it's officers until it can investigate the death of a 54 year old man who had been restrained with the tazer.

I can see the problem and everyone should be concerned. I mean, we don't want a bunch of cops using weapons that might hurt people and these tazer things sound really dangerous. I mean, 80 people have already died and only 7000 departments use the device with only 120,000 units out in use by law enforcement already on a daily basis.

If 80 people have already died since cops started using these, how many will die when these weapons become popular? What will happen when every policeman has one of these weapons on their belts? How many will die then? WONT SOMEONE SAVE THE CHILDREN?

Well, I hate to sound sarcastic about something as important as law enforcement, but what are the options? 80 people died?! Give me a break.

How many would have died if the cops used their weapons of choice? How many more would be dead if every time a Tazer was used a handgun was used instead?

Police are not trained to gently restrain people, they are trained to hurt and overwhelm people who threaten them or others. Cops are never, never, never, never, properly trained in any type of hand to hand combat, martial arts, non lethal combat or supplied with any type of non lethal weapons other than perhaps a baton, which are often more lethal then their bullet pumping counterparts and also require daily training to be truly effective. Non lethal alternatives have usually not been provided by police departments or their training.

Protect and serve, but keep yourself alive with your gun and ask questions later. That's standard cop training at all levels. Until the Tazer came along.

Cops rely on their guns. They train to shoot to kill and talking them into putting their safety into anything else is understandably difficult. They are the ones at risk and they are the ones who are in a situation that can become deadly at a moments notice. It took years to get police departments to take non lethal weapons seriously and it's been an uphill battle to try and get Tazers into very police cruiser to offer a choice to our officers.

Don't let someone ruin it for everyone. It might sound dangerous to have a non lethal weapon that killed 80 people since it's been in widespread use. But think about the alternatives. If we only give our cops guns, how many innocents will die then?

A lot more than 80. How many people were killed by beer bottles in the same time frame? Let's put the numbers in perspective and I'll bet Tazers are safer than oranges.

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