Wireless Tasers Fired from Shotguns
The new "XREP," for "extended range electronic projectile," can be fired from a standard shotgun, making it possible to send a Taser stun bolt through the air.
Taser has turned its weapon into a connected series of six darts arranged in an arc. The company says the device can be extended in a chain or stacked "like Lego," depending on the needs of the user....
The first electrode hooks on to the target, the second electrode falls and makes contact elsewhere on the body, completing the circuit and activating the shock. It can blast someone as far as 30 metres away, and, unlike the current stun guns, whose shock lasts five seconds, the XREP lasts 20 seconds, enough time to "take the offender into custody without risking injury to officers."
Tasers: the next generation [TheStar.com via Crime Scene KC]
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Just in case current tasers weren't deadly enough.
Yet another way for police officers to cause terror and pain to people who haven't done a damn thing wrong.
The device which can be stacked "like Legos" isn't the XREP, but the Shockwave, which Taser says is for military use. Well, at least for now.
@#2 I agree. I would much rather they shoot someone with a real gun.
I think it's good that they are at least trying for a nonlethal alternative
There's a weapon just like this in Bioshock.
Dear FSM...What have we done to deserve this?
@4: If you get overzealous with a gun, you have a death on your conscience and you stand a good chance of losing your job and possibly - though very rarely - going to jail. Misusing a gun can make a cop's life very complicated, which discourages them from using it unless absolutely needed.
If you get overzealous with a taser, you get immediate compliance from your target, and your superior (and the general public) doesn't even blink. Misusing a taser makes a cop's life much simpler, which encourages them to use it whenever it's convenient.
cool, that means 4 heart attacks instead of 1
I'll take the bullet instead please.
Zikzak -- I don't mean to be a contrarian, but isn't that really more a problem of poor controls against misuse of force? The argument otherwise seems to be, "well, if this less-lethal gadget exists, then people might use it," but if we focus on that, we'll feel a sense of accomplishment when Tasers are withdrawn when we've done nothing to keep abusive police from just bludgeoning people the old-fashioned way.
Crash-- I think the point is that the police are less likely to go at someone with their nightstick than they are with the Taser. The choice used to be risk getting physical with someone versus shooting them dead - either way there's a possible downside, throwdowns notwithstanding. The Taser gives them a risk-free way to abuse the public.
Well, about time! Between this and the Raytheon Pain Ray we'll finally be able to put those hippies and peaceniks and treehuggers and, well, everyone we don't like into their place.
It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out.
@#1: I must have missed something. When did tasers become lethal?
@Garbanzo: Then it's just fun.
Thomas: When the guy on the receiving end had a heart attack.
If they were being used in place of guns, they would be a good thing; instead, there are arseholes using them at the slightest excuse. Mind you, the same arseholes were probably using their billys at the slightest excuse before Tom invented his rifle.
I wonder if they will sell these things on the civilian market. It would be nice to have a nonlethal means of dealing with an intruder with better range than pepper spray.
Didymos
"I must have missed something. When did tasers become lethal?"
You have been out of the loop haven't you?
Taser death at Vancouver Airport
I can't wait till the police start using "puke sticks". The YouTube videos are going to be wild.
I had a late night ponder about this new Taser system awhile back, and had many of the same concerns as above.
Since then, police use of Tasers were involved in the death of a lost visitor at the Vancouver International Airport (my home town - for perspective, it's not a huge airport. There's not reason that man shouldn't have been helped prior to calling the police, and the police shouldn't have opted to use a Taser) and British police used a Taser on a man in a diabetic coma.
The problem with Taser systems is that they are currently regarded as convenient, and convenience just leads to trouble. Instead of "Can we get a translator?" or "Bring in the bomb squad", in these situations the police opted for the quick, easy, magic no-kill gun.
Personally I'm of the opinion that Tasers can kill, but while everyone argues that one out, I'd like to posit that they make police sloppy. And that always ends in trouble (as we've been seeing a lot lately.) Trouble puts more distance between police and the community, which leads to more situations where a very human (meaning grumpy, tired, lazy, confused, whatever) cop has to make a call about using a Taser.
Repeat.