Tasers Have Been Wrongfully Vilified

In 2009 a gentleman by the name of Jack Cover passed away and very few people will ever recognize that name. It’s a shame really because Cover’s invention, one he invented in 1974, has saved more lives than we may ever know. His invention was the Taser gun and the very intention of the Taser gun is to save lives, plain and simple. It was invented to give police an alternative to firearms as an effective means of self-defense. Unfortunately for Mr. Cover his invention is often looked at in a negative light.

I would say at least half the YouTube videos that feature a Taser and police in any way are featuring it with the intention of showing it as an example of the police in the video using excessive force. Of those I would say that a very small portion are anything even close to resembling excessive force. I won’t say all though and I understand that there are just some meat-head police officers that do use excessive force and it’s unfortunate. Although it does kind of highlight my point that Tasers shouldn’t be so quickly vilified. If I’m going to have a police officer use excessive force on me with a weapon I can think of a lot worse weapon to be attacked with than a Taser like a .357 for example. My preference would to be attacked by neither but you understand my point. Tasers save lives when it’s the alternative to a weapon like a firearm that leaves a gaping hole in a human that needs to be closed by a doctor or the human will die.

Tasers have killed people but the percentage is unbelievably small, much smaller than any weapon on Earth, including guns, knives, swords, bats, chairs and possibly fists when it comes to anything that has ever been used as a weapon. Any item of self-defense that is even the least bit effective is obviously going to come with some inherent level of danger. The weapon would be useless and ineffective if it didn’t at least have the potential to harm, especially if used inappropriately or incorrectly.

At the end of the day though Tasers were designed by Mr. Cover to allow police to defend themselves and/or subdue an unruly and dangerous perpetrator without having to take that individual's life or severely injure them with a firearm. So before we condemn an instrument of non-lethal self-defense like the Taser let us consider what it was designed to be an alternative to, the firearm.

Stay Safe,
Carl Vouer

To buy Tasers online or view other self defense items please visit us at Puzek Security Systems.