Guns, OC, and Tasers, Oh My
Dave Hardy is saying that some police chief organiations are worried about the new “lady taser” being used against police:
“If a police officer or a civilian is stunned with a Taser there are a whole array of things that can happen and most of them are very bad,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police in Washington, D.C.
Pasco, whose group represents 325,000 police officials nationwide, said the immobilizing devices should be limited to well-trained law enforcement professionals.
“There’s a tremendous amount of respect and accountability that goes along with a police officer using a Taser,” he said. “This Taser is no more regulated than a hair drier.”
If you want to know why I won’t give any money to the FOP, ever, despite a desire to support folks in law enforcement, crap like this is why. At some point, we’re going to have to expand this debate such that arms encompasses much more than just guns, because in the end, it’s not really about guns. It’s the fact that there’s a large large segments of our political class that don’t care if ordinary people are effectively unable to defend themselves from criminals.
They are willing to sacrifice the safety of ordinary citizens on the alter of a desire to bloat their egos by giving law enforcement a special status, and elevating their position above that of other civilians. I have a tremdous amount of respect for people who wear the badge and carry the gun. It is a difficult, stressful and thankless job, that we don’t often appreciate because it’s taken for granted. But police leadership is becoming generally atrocious. The sooner we return to the idea of police being civilians, that we hire to keep the peace, solve crimes, and arrest criminals, the better off we’ll all be.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I thought guns were immobilizing devices too. Hmmm….
August 16th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I have one of the new Tasers on order for a lady friend. I seriously doubt it’s barbs will penetrate a police weight kevlar vest.
August 16th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I disagree with you here. You should not own one of these devices unless you are a trained, law enforcement officer.
It took an off duty cop to effectively taser a man holding his baby this week. If you weren’t trained, you might have let the man walk out of a hospital with his own child.
Thank God that off duty cop had training or the baby might not have been dropped on its head and instead been electrocuted along with the father!
August 16th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Give it a bit of time, it’ll become a “favored criminal weapon” since its easier to rape a victim after a surprise Taser’ing since they’ll be temporarily rendered unable to resist or make substantial noise, etc. It’s also less risky to mug a disabled victim too … just imagine the possibilities.
August 16th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
pssst!
‘alter’ == change
‘altar’ == table used for rituals.
Not that this has any effect on your fine rant, just a burr sticking up.
August 16th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Tasers, too, are just for the “Only Ones.”
August 16th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
The funny thing about tasers is that police will/can only use them on unarmed people. The taser has a range of 30 feet, but that is awful close to the 21 foot rule is someone has a knife. Also, I doubt most cops could hit a target running away/ parallel to them with a firearm, so it would be considerably more difficult to score an already difficult shot. Just watch any of those taser videos on the net: they always shoot someone who is unarmed and not moving.
btw, it shoots out confetti with serial numbers – i’ll pass…
August 16th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
My understanding is police use tasers because it’s easier and safer than wrestling a guy to the ground and cuffing him.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:16 am
The community I live in has used stun guns / tasers in 3 separate go rounds in the last 25 years and I assure you they also make it a lot easier to question suspects,a get a quick confession, or just surprise your ex. Not quite up to the brutality of a rubber hose or wiring you up to an old crank phone, but thats progress for ya.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Register with a fake id. Come on now, it is not difficult.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:49 am
I believe at this blog the proper sub-title is;
“Like you and me, only better”
August 17th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Right, because everyone who is not moving and not caring a weapon needs to be wrestled to the ground…
August 17th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Seems like the taser might be better than a firearm to defend against this risk: the taser has the potential (ha) to immobilize the the attacker which a firearm may not do.
I’m still sticking with my .45 though.
August 18th, 2007 at 11:53 am
“If a police officer or a civilian is stunned with a Taser there are a whole array of things that can happen and most of them are very bad…”
Then why should cops have them either? When accused of misuse, the police say they are harmless.
Hmmm.