Modern day self defense has evolved from lethal baseball bats and 9MM handguns to non-lethal Pepper Spray and Taser Guns. Some people say that a Taser is not non-lethal, but more than 99.99% of the time they do not cause death or any serious medical injury. It is a fact that Taser (the company) has been sued many times for causing death yet they have not lost in court, but think of all the lives they saved by replacing the use of police handguns time and time again. If Taser Guns would not have been available an officer may have needed to resort to using a much more lethal firearm to stop an aggressor.

I am a dealer of Taser's products and recently attended a conference that included some very hands on Taser training. An officer from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Department informed the crowd of about 175 of the details between different available Tasers. In case you are not aware of how this device works, let me fill you in. A Taser deploys two probes when fired that shoot out up to 15 feet and either attach to clothing or embed themselves in the skin. If operated correctly and the probes are more than 6 inches apart, the assailant will loose control of muscles and fall to the ground helpless. The unit sends out 50,000 volts that can last anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds depending on the model Taser Gun used. The model we were speaking about was the Taser C2. When the C2 is fired it continuously sends the 50,000 volts into the assailant until either the 30 seconds is up or the unit is turned off.

The demonstrating officer asked if there were any volunteers to be shocked by the Taser and surprisingly there were quite a few volunteers. I declined to be a participant in this, but had no problem watching nearly 15 others get the crap shocked out of them. One after another, people went up and told the officer know how long they wanted to be Tased. The first was fairly disappointing at only 3 seconds. It wasn't even enough time to take him to the ground, but he made it very clear in his facial expressions that it was rather unpleasant. The next decided to be brave and went for 5 seconds. After about 3 seconds I heard a loud scream and “stop, stop, stop” then the officer stopped. I watched many give it a try and many fall to the ground helpless. About half the shocked guinea pigs screamed stop before the time they specified ahead of time was up. The times ranged from 5 to 10 seconds. Only one person impressed me when he said 8 seconds and made it through. I was thinking “no way”. This individual named Steve made it through all 8 seconds and took it like a man. It would be hard to imagine taking a full 30 second C2 Taser Gun shot and perhaps next year I will give it a try myself.

The Taser Gun is a very effective, affordable and safe method of self defense. In today's violent world you should arm yourself to stay safe. Whether your choice of self defense devices are a Taser, pepper spray or stun gun you will have an unexpected advantage if attacked and be given the chance to escape with your life and unharmed.