Stun guns belong to a class of weapons known as non-lethal weapons. This means that you can use a stun gun to defend yourself without risking that a shot from your hands can end in manslaughter or accidental homicide. Stun guns are often used to neutralize threatening animals without killing them. Although getting shot with a stun gun is certainly painful and unpleasant, it is not fatal so long as the shooter is trained and uses the gun correctly, which makes stun guns popular with officials like policemen and military personnel outside of combat situations. For many years, stun guns have also been widely used by average civilians who want to defend themselves without the burden of potentially ending the life of an attacker.

Stun guns have traditionally worked like regular handguns in that they target only one person at a time. However, recent scientific advances have led to the creation of what are known as sweeping stun guns. These weapons emit a sweeping ray of electricity that can potentially neutralize a large crowd of people at a far distance from the shooter with only a single press of a button. Although sweeping stun guns may sound like they have sprung from the pages of a science fiction novel, these guns are being developed so rapidly that they may be available for sale to government organizations in a matter of a few years.

Officials in the United States Marine Corps have expressed strong interest in sweeping stun guns for potential use in crowd control situations. However, there has been a lot of controversy about these weapons. Because the technology is so new, there have not yet been extensive tests about the long term effects of the guns. Until long range studies have been completed, there is no way to tell whether sweeping stun guns are truly non-lethal or not. Some experts argue that the powerful electric charge of a shot from a sweeping stun gun may cause permanent damage that can develop into serious health problems down the road.

For now, officials and civilians will continue to use single target stun guns for defense purposes. The fact that the stun guns available today are only useful over short distances is both a blessing and a curse. One disadvantage is that this fact limits the kinds of situations that stun guns can be used in. However, the fact that these guns work only at close range also means that it is possible to have a great amount of control over where their powerful electric currents hit. This enables precise shooting, and helps stun gun users avoid mistakenly hitting the wrong target.