Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

Comfortable killing

In early December 2003, we published an item on Tasers which focussed on concerns over the apparent safety of such devices - many months ahead of the mainstream press. Since then, the weapon has been adopted by Australian police forces, and has been known to be used on several occasions. Today, almost a year later, those concerns have been strongly supported by no less an authority than the US Air Force. Their lab found that "the guns could be dangerous and that more data was needed to evaluate their risks". More than 70 people have died, mainly from heart or respiratory failure after being shocked with Tasers, since 2001. Particularly alarming is the disclosure that:

"Taser has performed only minimal research on the health effects of its weapons. Its primary safety studies on the M26, its most powerful gun, consist of tests on a single pig in 1996 and on five dogs in 1999. The company has resisted calls for more tests, saying that it is comfortable with the research it has conducted."

Noteworthy too is the shift in description of these weapons from "non-lethal" to the current "less-deadly weapons" - although one may wonder what degrees of less than "dead" actually exist.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 3:20 pm ::