On July 21,st 2009 I awoke to a CNN news story about a man in Australia who had just gotten out of prison and had been sniffing gasoline when the police were called to the mans home. I guess the man was scared so he at first refused to come to the door, a few minutes had gone by and then the man emerged from the front door with a lit match and a 1 gallon orange juice container that was filled with gasoline, it was also apparent to the police officer that he had splashed gasoline over his face as well. The police officer obviously wanted to stop the man from torching himself pulled out his taser and shot the man with the taser and hit him in the bridge of his nose thus accidentally setting him on fire. The man was taken to a hospital with burns over 20% of his body.
When I first saw the headline of this story without having actually read the account of what happened my reaction to the story was one of horror thinking "Could that have been caused by too much voltage?" After further reading it became clear that the incident had been aggrivated by the use of accelerants or gasoline, and not from my original thought of too much voltage.
From a law enforcement perspective a stun gun which is a dangerous tool obviously, is less dangerous than a real gun. It is a tool that allows peace officers who would otherwise have to shoot the individual with a real gun and possibly wound him fatally are now able to subdue the individual and be able to save his life that 30 years ago would have resulted in a fatal police shooting of the suspect.
I am grateful to the police all over the world that have to put their lives on the line for us everyday! I am very glad that they now have a tool which would allow them to subdue a person with non lethal force rather than having only a weapon that kills. This choice has now given police officers a new more humane tool in subduing a suspect.
When I first saw the headline of this story without having actually read the account of what happened my reaction to the story was one of horror thinking "Could that have been caused by too much voltage?" After further reading it became clear that the incident had been aggrivated by the use of accelerants or gasoline, and not from my original thought of too much voltage.
From a law enforcement perspective a stun gun which is a dangerous tool obviously, is less dangerous than a real gun. It is a tool that allows peace officers who would otherwise have to shoot the individual with a real gun and possibly wound him fatally are now able to subdue the individual and be able to save his life that 30 years ago would have resulted in a fatal police shooting of the suspect.
I am grateful to the police all over the world that have to put their lives on the line for us everyday! I am very glad that they now have a tool which would allow them to subdue a person with non lethal force rather than having only a weapon that kills. This choice has now given police officers a new more humane tool in subduing a suspect.
Stun guns allow us to make a very real and difficult choice easier byhaving the stopping power of a real gun without the loss of life.
