Firing up the newest Tasers
CNET News' Caroline McCarthy gets to test out a Taser T3 device, but much to her chagrin, she wasn't allowed to shoot it at a live human.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
DUBLIN, Calif.--Don't tase me, bro. Really.
CNET News took a trip to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Regional Training Center on Friday to have a look at some of the newest equipment from Taser, which was among the companies showing off weaponry at the UrbanShield 2009 training event. The electric-shock gadgets are controversial and have drummed up some bad press over the years for causing the occasional serious injury or even fatality. But the company has maintained its insistence that they are significantly safer than the alternative (i.e. guns).
We didn't get to tase anybody. But we did get to see the Shockwave, a big Taser device that can incapacitate five or six people at a time, which company representatives told us is designed for crowd-control situations and can be triggered remotely via a 100-foot firing wire.
There are also two recently released handheld Tasers: the X3, which unlike its single-shot predecessors can fire off a total of three shots at once; and the XREP, a Taser projectile that's fired out of a modified 12-gauge shotgun (the modifications ensure that regular cartridges can't be used instead). Both devices are bright yellow, which representatives told us means they're easily identified as non-lethal weapons.
You can't go to your local sporting goods store and buy these Tasers--unlike the smaller, consumer-grade C2 devices, the X3 and XREP lines are only sold to police, military, and sometimes animal-control professionals. Taser International's vice president of training, Rick Guilbault, told us that a Taser was once used to pry off a rogue python that had wrapped itself around a woman's arm and wouldn't let go.
Another time, a Taser was successfully used to safely deter an out-of-control alligator in Florida. "But then they tried it in Australia on those big salt-water crocodiles," Guilbault related, "and that didn't work. It just made them mad."
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
That phrase was used in a crossword puzzle I did yesterday! LOL
Think "Manhattan Project." Many, perhaps most, people who develop horrible weapons end up wishing they hadn't done so. These fools refuse to learn from the past, and in doing so they compromise their own humanity.
Oh. Gee. Darn. Because watching a live human flop around like a fish would have been gratifying somehow?
Anyway, I volunteer to let Caroline tase me. I never could refuse a pretty girl.
The real problem is the abuse by overuse of these weapons! Pigs would rather be lazy and zap someone than take the time to talk them down or reason with them nowadays. F. off to you, zap-crazy pigs.
The issue is not taser vs. gun. The issue is that police are increasingly using tasers for compliance instead of as a susbstitute for lethal force. I hope you never get pulled over by a cop who is having a bad day and end up with a taser-induced coronary because you argured about a traffic infraction. It 's embarrasingly easy to find examples of this in the news. As far as the subject of these being used for crowd control; just wait until another far-left or far-right administration is in power and see how popular dissent gets extinguished. Think about all this next time you see a story about granny being tased because she couldn't get out of her car in time.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson
Cops when they "go in for the kill" will NOT be using tasers, period. Frankly I think most would probably prefer to take their survival chances with a taser as oppposed to a 9mm hollow point, 5.62mm NATO or a .45 ACP.
@ make_or_break
Taser Int. has released a statement now telling the cops to shoot legs and arms ONLY no chest shots anymore. In case you haven't read a previous poster's statements, the cops are using these thinks to force compliance, not as a non lethal alternative. The use they were intended for. Hope neither of you two have to deal with a cop on a bad day or you'll get tazed yourself. Do a youtube search for police brutality and you'll see thousands of videos of cops tazing people because they don't do what the cops tell them to. Even when it's an unlawful arrest. Of which a Judge stated we have the right as soveriegn citizens to resist unlawful arrest UP TO the point of taking the cop's life. Get real, or get a grip whatever it takes.
If the electric chair used embedded Windows 7, would cnet publish benchmarks and reviews?
BTW I really wouldn't call this article promotion, it's not like they said these tools are fantastic 4/5 stars buy it now.
Tasers should have never been approved in the first place, and they should see if a SMALLER zap works just as well as 10K volts.
I dunno about that bit about tasers being more deadly than police actions with their Glocks, Sigs and S&Ws; we've had a number of police-involved shootings around here in recent months and for the ones who actually managed to hit their intended target, I think the kill ratio has been pretty darn close to 100%.
took the words right out of my mouth.
i would rather be shocked than shot in the chest. the people being tased have made a choice, don't blame the cops for doing their job.
As far as "abuse" goes, yea I think some get out of hand from time to time, but the media being so f'ing liberal exaggerates EVERYTHING. And it's not the volts that get you, it's the amps.
Actually its easy from anywhere, police make it too easy. And you are right, even in your home you are not safe, just ask that professor that got arrested from his house.
"Are you police officers? No? Then shut the hell up"
LEO's should not be in charge of investigating themselves, they should respond to the public and have their sentencing maxed as well as more aggressive interrogations instead of in their own terms.
"How many officers are killed for a routine car stop?"
Oh yeah well you dont know so ****, dont be an ediot. The stats are available, in Texas there was 18 deaths and guess what, 9 of them were accidents. The others were what you would call heroic deaths. That is from the last offiicial statistics.
"If it lets them get up and do their jobs everyday, more power to them."
You mean traffic citations and patrolling? They don't exactly have a difficult job. They make it harder on themselves, by harassing people. In Dallas you had a cop putting people in jail with Sheetrock dust. Then lately another cop was sexually assaulting immigrants, the goes on and on.
Id like to see a day where every office in the country took the day off and did what ever they wanted without prosecutions. I'll be first in line with my camera to take a pictures, ohh darn. I forgot you tube is full of that, the line is too long.
"liberal exaggerates EVERYTHING"
Yeah like your liberal view of policing with tasser, dont be such a hypocrite.
It frankly sickens me to see how the daily routine of a cop is to cause further pain to drug addicts....and being the 'control method' of choice in domestic disputes.
I don't blame the cops at all. Frankly I blame the public for thinking this is anything but a waste of money and resources.
Look at Minority Report. Granted it's just one person's fictional view of the future, but law enforcement there is almost exclusively equipped with less-lethal weaponry. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see us trend more towards the less-lethal form of law enforcement.
Like any other tool, weapons have the potential to be mis-used and abused. When that happens, the persons responsible for intentional abuse should face consequences for their actions. If you read many police policies regarding the use of weapons, you will find statements to the effect of "...up to and including dismissal..." and "...criminal charges..." being pressed. How many people have those kinds of statements in their policies at work? That kind of language indicates how serious the use of even non-lethal weapons are taken. It is a good idea to give our police more choices for dealing with violence. Tasers are an excellent tool that provide an effective option short of firearms for controlling people who cannot or will not control themselves.
Admittedly not every police agency has good policies and training for their officers. Isn't it up to the citizens in those jurisdictions to demand a higher level of professionalism from it's police?
- by coolrabbit_001 October 25, 2009 4:51 AM PDT
- dont tase me bro? wait while somebody tases your ass *****!
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