Stun Guns: Effectiveness And Lethality

Stun guns are definitely powerful but they are also claimed to be non-lethal, despite a few high-profile cases involving their use. The theory is that the electrical charge temporarily disables the target, causing only non-damaging though painful muscular disruptions.

Thus the pattern of deaths arising from electroshock weapons, often employed by police officers whose departments had imagined the devices to be a safe option. Manufacturers’ instructions state a mere half-second shock is known to cause intense pain, with muscle contractions. The effects are exponentially magnified with each passing second of exposure, resulting in conditions of total exhaustion, with impaired breathing and even possible cardiac arrest. In this regard, one manufacturer even builds its latest model with an automatic stop after a few seconds, requiring another pull of the trigger to send a further discharge, as previous versions allowed for continual discharges by simply holding down the trigger.

Indeed, this particular manufacturer, a pioneer in the electroshock weapons market, no longer advertises its products as being non-lethal, advising instead that they are, in effect, only less lethal. However, independent research has determined that stun guns do not interfere with devices such as pacemakers or implantable defibrilators. These tests, however, have only examined otherwise healthy subjects, and more research seems mandatory so as to arrive at a clearer conclusion.

Moreover, stun guns may not be the self-defense wonder weapons they’re typically made out to be. There’s also the concern, as with any product or service obtained for personal safety, that the user would wind up developing illusory feelings of security and power. After all, stun guns actually require physical contact with the target, and such contact must be continuous for quite a few seconds. It’s easy to imagine how aggressive, larger targets who are well-trained in close unarmed combat could very well overpower the user and then turn the stun gun against him or her! For despite the muscle spasms caused, any break in physical contact, when employing such stun guns, would result in enough of a respite for determined, physically strong aggressors to recover the initiative and prevail in hand-to-hand combat.

To begin with, having one should be preferable to not having any self-defense weapon at all, and stun guns are effective enough to get banned by some jurisdictions. Where legally available, stun gun owners should probably undertake specific technical training in their effective use.