Forget about Tupperware and sex toy parties. How about having a Taser party instead? My thoughts on this are mixed. On the one hand I think it would be great to have one when walking alone at night or kept in the house for protection. On the other hand I could see certain people abusing it. Would we would hear more stories of a person getting blasted with one because they looked at someone wrong, or said something offensive? It’s good to know they do background checks on people who purchase them. But, what about the people who attend the party? What if it’s bought as a gift for someone? Some of these questions were probably asked when pepper spray was introduced to the public. You don’t hear of massive abuse with that. A few cases every now and then, but that’s it. Readers, what do you think?
“Before she lets them shoot her little pink stun gun, Dana Shafman ushers her new friends to the living room sofa for a serious chat about the fears she believes they all share. “The worst nightmare for me is, while I’m sleeping, someone coming in my home,” Shafman says, drawing a few solemn nods from the gathered women. Shafman, 34, of Phoenix, says she knows how they feel. She says she used to stash knives under her pillow for protection. Welcome, she says, to the Taser party. On the coffee table, Shafman spreads out Taser’s C2 “personal protector” weapons that the company is marketing to the public. It doesn’t take long before the women are lined up in the hallway, whooping as they take turns blasting at a metallic target. “C’mon!” she says. “Give it a shot.”
Shafman isn’t an employee for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International. She’s an independent entrepreneur who’s been selling Tasers the way her mother’s generation sold plastic food storage containers.”
(via The Chicago Tribune)
January 5, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I think tasers should be illegal.
January 5, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I don’t even think there should be background checks for guns, so I don’t have a problem with taser sales.
However, I don’t think they should be marketed as “non-lethal.” Seventy people died from tasers in the US in 2007 according to Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/americas/north-america/usa
Check out Amnesty’s taser abuse site: http://www.amnestyusa.org/Domestic_Human_Rights/TASER_Abuse/page.do?id=1021202&n1=3&n2=850&n3=220
January 6, 2008 at 10:38 am
Crime is rampant in Greensboro NC. Maybe taser parties are the way to go to prevent rapes, killings & looting. Our crime rate is up 100%. Anyone interested in starting a taser party in Greensboro, NC. Please respond.
January 6, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Maureen- They have a message board on their site. Maybe if you post your interest there, you’ll get a response. Cheers!
http://www.shieldher.net/
January 8, 2008 at 9:40 pm
If you think you can use a taser to protect yourself you are an idiot you doesn’t know how they work. Depending on the clothes they hit they don’t always work. Sometimes lots are required to stop even one person. Each uses a single cartridge that much be reloaded, which is fine for multiple cognizant and trained officers but going to do nothing for somebody using them for selfdefense unless they get really lucky. It’s like using a single shot .22 for home defense.
Tasers are used by police to “shoot” people that would otherwise get away because their “use of force” is considered non-lethal and justified while guns aren’t.
Technology is always enabling.
Buy a .357 mag revolver. If that’s too much buy ultraviolet dying pepper spray. A knife will just cause most grief unless you are fast, strong and committed.
If you run from the police wear heavy clothing and zig-zag.
January 8, 2008 at 11:41 pm
First of all, let me just state that I believe life is about discovery, and sharing what you know. Calling people you don’t know an “idiot” is a bit harsh. That being said, thanks for the inside info. I do appreciate it.