for: Taser International

A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses Electro-Muscular Disruption (EMD) technology to cause neuromuscular incapacitation or NMI and strong muscle contractions through the involuntary stimulation of both the sensory nerves and the motor nerves. The Taser is not dependent on pain compliance making it highly effective on subjects with high pain tolerance. For this reason it is preferred by law enforcement over traditional stun guns and other electronic control weapons. Currently there are two main police models, the M26 and X26 . Both come with various accessories, including a laser sight and mounted digital video camera that can record in low-light situations. Taser International is also marketing a civilian model called the C2 model.

Tasers were introduced as less-lethal weapons to be used by police to subdue fleeing, belligerent, or potentially dangerous subjects, often when what they consider to be a more lethal weapon would have otherwise been used. The use of Tasers has become controversial following instances of Taser use which have resulted in injury and death.

Name

The Taser is named after a fictional weapon: Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle. Taser is a registered tradename. It has prompted a backformed verb "to tase" which means "to use a Taser on", although "to taser" is also commonly used.

History

Jack Cover, a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969. By 1974, Cover had completed the device, which he named for his childhood hero Tom Swift. The Taser Public Defender used gunpowder as its propellant, which led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to classify it as a firearm in 1976. In 1991, a Taser supplied by Tasertron to the Los Angeles Police Department failed to subdue Rodney King. Its lack of effectiveness was blamed on a faulty battery.

Taser International CEO Rick Smith has testified in Taser-related lawsuit that the catalyst for the development of the device was the "shooting death of two of his high school acquaintances" by a "guy with a legally licensed gun who lost his temper." In 1993, Rick Smith and his brother Tim began to investigate what they called "safer use of force option1 for citizens and law enforcement." At their Scottsdale, Arizona facilities, the brothers worked with the "... original TASER inventor, Jack Cover" to develop a "non-firearm TASER electronic control device." The 1994 AIR TASER Model 34000 had an "anti-felon identification (AFID) system" to prevent the likelihood that the device would be used by criminals; upon use, it released many small pieces of paper containing the serial number of the Taser device. The US firearms regulator, the ATF, stated that the AIR TASER was not a firearm. In 1999, Taser International developed an "ergonomically handgun shaped device called the ADVANCED TASER M-series systems" which used a "patented neuromuscular incapacitation (NMI) technology." In May 2003, Taser International released a new weapon called the TASER X26, which used "Shaped Pulse Technology."