It’s illegal to own a stun gun in, well, most of the usual suspect states. Places where diminishing the right to keep and bear firearms isn’t sufficient. States where they find it necessary to restrict virtually any method of armed self defense. Thankfully, for most of us, guns that go bang aren’t the only option available. And new CEW’s – conducted electronic weapons – like the TASER Pulse offer a light, packable, effective option for those who can’t or won’t carry a pistol. Would you carry one as an additional personal defense option? Have you?
There’s no law preventing me but I don’t think I should. I don’t think I could resist zapping a few of my coworkers who probably deserve a little attitude adjustment…
LAWS Regarding stun guns and other electronic defense weapons.
I would strongly urge you to check your local laws. I thought stunguns were legal in my County, I even checked each city law, I also went to our local police department the office(duty sargent)confirmed that they were legal to carry, then an officer (who is a friend of mine) saw me w/ my stun gun & informed me I could be arrested for a misdemeanor for even having one in my possession. I once again went to my local PD, the officers investigated further, and, found that, hidden under an amendment in the local municipality was an RCW that stated, No Electronic weapons and or tools that may be utilized for defense or offense weapons will be allowed in anyone’s possession for any reason at any time. They are considered to be a misdemeanor and punishable by either a fine and/or jail time, even the officers were not aware of this.
Food for thought
P.S. I was also told that prosecution would more than likely not follow and nothing more than a slap on the wrist as the local judicial system has way more important things to deal with and a waiting list that is beyond belief.
Perhaps consider a proposal to correct that at the next city hall -county commissioners meeting?
No
Only if I could ‘set phaser to kill’.
No I don’t see the utility. If a situation calls for force, I don’t want to waste time on a less effective, and frankly unreliable option. More importantly, I fear that it could be used against me in a court of law. It wouldn’t be that hard for a rabid prosecutor to argue in a self defense shooting that I also had a taser on me and I could have used that instead and WHAM, I’m up the creek without a paddle.
Deescalate, deescalate, deescalate. If that doesnt work, there are millions of defensive situations where a lethal firearm is presented and that is enough. If its not enough, thats what the 124 grain Hornadys are for. No reason to complicate things further in a high stress situation.
Agree 100 percent, I luckily live in an open carry, gun loving state. Not to mention, haven’t you ever heard of the perp being injured, then suing you, the victim, for medical costs ect? If presenting isn’t enough, I have no plans of hesitation, and the perp is not seeing tomorrow, i have kids and a wife to protect, end of story.
Yup. For cops they are great. Cops are going towards situations and need to APPREHEND the perp and that is what tasers are great for. Two cops roll up on violent dude with a baseball bat and the cop threatens to tase the guy while his parter covers him with the 12 gauge. when the taser fails its no big deal since you’ve got buddies with guns and if the taser works than you are doing your job which is to confront perps and arrest them. I have no such duty as a civilian, my duty is survival.
I don’t go looking for trouble, trouble comes to me. And if I get into trouble, my job is to get out of that trouble by any means necessary, not looking out for the best interests of my attacker or the PR issues that a police department gets for shooting a suspect.
You basically wrote the same response I had. Tasers are great for gaining compliance over an unruly arrestee. I’m not arresting anyone, and if they don’t stop attacking me when commanded to, I would rather have a more reliable way of stopping an attack than an electronic device.
FYI, much of the general public seems to either be unaware or forget that there is a BIG Difference between a Tasser and a Stun Gun. Remember a Taser has 2 wires & 2 prongs, both prongs Must penetrate the clothing in order to be effective and complete the circuit otherwise they will not work.
A StunGun, on the other hand only has two contact points, & is easier used in close quarters, you can stun the person with a stun gun without stunning yourself at the same time & although less effective, you can still Stun the attacker through their clothing, you do not need direction contact. Also Stun guns are Far and Away much more powerful than a Taser and can be utilized until the attacker is on the ground and unconscious without having to be reloaded. A Taser traditionally only has 50,000 volts & must be reloaded after each use, but a stun gun can range from 500 volts to over 15 million volts, a HUGE difference in being effective and being able to be utilized at closer ranges and through clothing and they’re much less expensive. If need be you can use a stun gun, render your attacker unconscious, wipe the fingerprints off and throw it away.
By the way I mistakenly deployed my stun gun on myself And, Holy shit! Made my poop shoot Pucker, the dog thought I was bug shit crazy! was only a short burst. I don’t care if your 300 pounds 6’6″ and the biggest badass on the Block, if you think you can handle 15 million volts in Rapid succession and still be coherent guess again, approximately less than 5% of the population can absorb the shock of a stun gun let alone being shocked 3-4 times in succession.
This still doesn’t mitigate any of the issues that I have brought up. I have to be in contact distance with someone that is trying to cause me great bodily harm. If they have a knife, im getting stabbed while trying to stun gun them. They could also be wearing a very heavy coat, batteries fail, etc. Sure they have the capability to do this and that but there is no place for it in my load out.
The problem with a stun gun is that you have to get close enough to get stabbed or beaten to use it. No thanks.
Having a LTL option is not a bad thing in most cases as long as it’s not overloading the user with options. It comes down to cost, size and upkeep for me. There are pros and cons to every system. Would I like one for the truck? Yes. Am I willing to pay $400 for it? No. Do I want to mess with batteries etc.? No. Am I going to carry one? No do I want my college daughter to have one where they won’t “allow” firearms? Yes.
Prolly not. Then again, until Caetano v. Massachusetts is finally resolved, I don’t have the option.
That might be a good thing. With no LTL options available, it would be more difficult for a leftist loon prosecutor to brand me a crazed cop-wannabe if I ever have to deploy my firearm.
We know from many reports that true Tasers (the kind that project wires with barbed needles) are reasonably effective. However, I looked up quite a few internet reports on contact stun guns (something like the one in the picture above) and they got very mixed reviews for effectiveness.
I would love to see TTAG do a test of contact stun guns. How effective and reliable are they? If they are legal to carry, are they worth the trouble?
Contact stun guns are tier 1 garbage, usually sold to low info women who find guns ‘icky’. If you think contact stuns work like tasers, you’re wrong. Imagine getting smacked by a big rubber band. That’s what a stun gun feels like. Sure it happens multiple times a second but in the end it is simple pain compliance, and on top of that the pain basically stops the moment you break contact. Other than the deterrent effect of the loud noise and sparks it makes, it’s actually worse than good quality pepper spray, which is why cops carry pepper spray and not stun guns.
Tasers are a whole different ballgame. They work differently and they have range. They also keep working after initial contact. There’s a reason cops carry them and not regular stun guns.
TLDR: Stun gun no, Taser yes.
If it had a 30 round magazine and was good to 50m, yeah
Stun gun? No. Shock baton or cattle prod? Very much Yes.
Stun gun? As in a contact weapon?
Why would I want to let an attacker get that close to me?
In the last two months, TTAG has had seven articles that either discussed the TASER Pulse device directly or used it as an illustration, which is making it feel like either your shilling for TASER or you have just become enamored with this marginal device.
I see these things as a threat to gun rights on the order of “smart guns.” The anti-gunners will say, well, here is something these “gun nuts” can carry that looks like a gun (sort of like a pacifier), but is more to our liking than a real gun. So, let’s legislate it!
Also, I wouldn’t want to bring a TASER to a gunfight. Would you? I wouldn’t even want to bring one to a knife fight. And who wants any weapon that only has one shot? There’s another tip of the hat to the anti-gunners: “The Founding Fathers'” guns only had one shot, so that’s all they had in mind with 2A.”
I think TASERs are good for what they were designed for, for cops trying to control unruly suspects long enough to get them in cuffs. But if a cop is faced with deadly force, I don’t think he’s going to be going for his TASER.
If the “Stun Gun” could be fire highly charged capacitor’s from a good distance. Sure! ……Though currently my options are a Stun Gun I have to press against a threat or a Stun Gun that has two electrodes that are fired out of the weapon one positive and one negative and requires them to be attached via a thin wires to the gun. Both of the current solutions in my opinion suck. And before someone says it…..YES I know a highly charged capacitor can kill quite easily since it’s basically like getting zapped by a heart defibrillator cranked to 11! Though I look at it like this…..at least they have a 50/50 chance and the medics might be able to restart the attackers heart….though if a fire a .45 JHP through the attackers heart I doubt the medics will be able to restart anything.
No. Batteries run out. Batons just bend.
I’ve carried a collapsible baton for years when I couldn’t risk losing my job over a gun. I’ve had to pull it a few times, and each time it has changed the criminals mind before I had to use it.
Stun guns and mace are half measures. If you want a secondary weapon that can end an attack, get a baton or a Karamabit like the one in the video.
No.
The only possible value that a device like a Taser has for a non-police citizen is to allow them some kind of weapon in places where guns are not allowed. The hitch is, the kinds of places that ban guns are never going to allow Tasers, either.
Seems to me like Taser has realized that the cop market is finite, and are hoping that there’s a huge untapped civilian market so they can keep their growth (and stock price) up. I don’t think that civilian market exists, once everyday people get their hands on these and realize they’re not the “phaser set on stun” device that movies and TV make them out to be. The subset of people who can, but won’t, carry a pistol, but who will carry a Taser has got to be pretty small.
And why is TTAG pimping so hard for the Pulse, anyway? Seems like it gets mentioned here with increasing regularity lately.
“And why is TTAG pimping so hard for the Pulse, anyway?”
Because they sent one to RF for a T&E awhile back.
I have volunteered to be shot by it, provided the remuneration is agreeable.
As in a NIB Sig, HK or similar agreeable… 🙂
That’s a bit steep. I wouldn’t get greedy about it. A simple Tavor X95 in FDE would suffice for me… left hand configuration, of course :).
A bit steep?
I’ll be the one doing the ‘High-Voltage Spaz’ for a full 30 fvcking seconds!
*And* living with the humiliation of it being on YouTube for all time.
It needs to be 2 guns NIB or a TTAG chaperoned lunch with Kirsten Joy Weiss.
Yeah…
🙂
We are not “pimping” anything.
I view the Pulse as a revolutionary non-lethal (less-lethal?) weapon that could serve as a gateway to firearms for some, an extremely effective form of self-defense for others.
TTAG hasn’t received any financial remuneration for our opinions on this or any other subject. Period.
Yea, I’m a cardiac patient, nothing less lethal about pulse weapons for me.
That’s why they are called “less-lethal” and not “non-lethal”. In the vast majority of cases, the target will not suffer long term complications. A person with cardiac issues is to a taser like a short person is to a car without adjustable height on the seatbelt shoulder strap. Because they are outside of the norm, the design of the device that shouldn’t harm them (or in the latter case save them) may wind up inadvertently killing them.
Found that a .45 double tap has all the ‘stun’ I require.
Absolutely not !
Maybe-but I always have a reach out and touch someone weapon with me. I’m not ruling one out…
For those that cannot carry a pistol or will not for whatever reason the stun gun would be another option however I myself would not carry one as if I felt that threatened I would want something with a little more persuasion.
I haven’t seen a Taser yet with a mag capacity of a Glock…
And you’re all right, but to add a gripe to the pile: The stupid things cost between $300-500 or more. That’s a steep price for something that is considerably less legal than a firearm in my state and isn’t guaranteed to even work when you need it. One company will refund your money if you use their taser, toss it, and run away (and survive being chased by a very angry person). If I’m going to buy a weapon to throw away it will be a Hi-Point. Worst case, the Hi-Point just turns into a blunt weapon.
In what situation would an ordinary citizen require a less than lethal response? How would you justify the use of a Taser? If it’s a situation that merits a lethal response, then why respond with a less than lethal weapon?
Lets say you’re at a bar/concert/game and you manage to piss off a drunk guy. He starts talking trash, starts shoving you a little, and he’s not letting you leave. If you even have your gun on you and you’re allowed to carry it, it would be grey area to pull it and even worse if you had to actually shoot in a heavily populated area. So, do you duke it out with Grumpy McShitface? Do you pull your knife and stab him? It would be nice to have some spray or a taser to get your point across without killing the guy.
Hmmm, this seems to fit into the “stupid places with stupid people” thing.
Why in the world would I go to a bar or other place crowded with idiots… and why in heaven’s name would I piss off someone there?
A big part of intelligent self defense is not to deliberately go into places full of people from whom you might realistically need to defend yourself.
Naw man.
Yes I would get one and carry it. But I don’t think I would carry in addition to a conceal carry pistol, perhaps on occasion, but I would carry it in places where firearms are not allowed.
I would buy one mainly for my wife, she does not want to take a life, and I think there is many people who feel similar, that wish to have effective less than lethal self defense tools but are very limited. Currently pepper spray is the only self defense tool with any range, but it suffers from many setbacks, (range, wind, don’t use it in crowds, you could easily get it on yourself) too bad the price for the taser pulse is so high. I like it better than the other civilian marketed CEW they had but the price point is still very high.
So called “stun guns” are far removed from their hollywood brethren.
I would never have my girlfriend carry this joke of a self defence weapon. My buddy used to “taze” me and other friends with a million volt hand taser as a joke. It works as long as you hold it to the person in the right spot, but as soon as you back off, they’re able bodied and PISSED. Tasers are NOT an effective weapon. If your loved ones are carrying them, please get them a real gun. Even pepper spray is better. At least that blinds them for a minute or two.
If you’re worried about taking lives, consider most gunshot victims survive and call it good.
One shot?
And people think I am under gunned not carrying a spare magazine.
I carry out enough. Not as additional, not as sole tool.
They didn’t have electricity when the 2nd amendment was written.
I would not bother with “stun gun”, because it does not work as implied by its name – it does not impede attackers vision or movement – only causes modest pain when body is in contact with electrodes – thus it requires extreme proximity to the opponent. The pain (which is really not that great ) will just enrage your opponent, especially when drunk or drugged. The device is useless when you fight against stronger, younger and faster attacker – he will still be able to puch, kick or grab you which you have to avoid by gaining distance, thus rendering the whole “stun gun” useless. Thus it is basically useless against human beings and also animals – like aggressive dogs etc. Quality pepper spray, either in form of a fog ( especially outdoors and for inexperienced civilian user which can have problems with directing thin stream of irritant toward the face of attacker) or a gel (when used indoors or by trained user that does not work alone and/or has also a baton as followup), is much better, because it will cause problems with vision and breathing thus giving you a chance to escape or subdue opponent (if you are trained and especially have other tool that works great with the spray: baton). For civilian stun gun is just a waste of money and creates false sense of confidence.
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