This board is to discuss TASER.
And also, any guesses for the next monster stock are okay too -g
Here's an article from Washington State:
columbiabasinherald.com
'Totally incapacitating'
Sheriff's deputies tote and tout new Taser weapons
By Erik Olson
Herald staff writer
Grant County Sheriff's Deputy Gary Mansford takes a hit from a Taser gun during a training course. "It felt totally incapacitating," he explained afterward.
One by one, their bodies hit the floor, writhing in agony.
For five seconds of hell, deputies with the Grant County Sheriff's Office felt the powerful charge of the X26 Taser gun, designed to halt assailants in their tracks without inflicting permanent harm.
"It felt totally incapacitating," Deputy Gary Mansford said after taking a hit from the Taser.
"It took everything away. I couldn't think," Patrol Officer Ron Renken said.
Deputy Scott Granger said he could not have fought back after receiving the charge. His answer as to how the Taser felt? "Like hell."
And one anonymous deputy described the experience like this in his evaluation: "It felt like a thousand Keebler attacked me with baseball bats."
The sheriff's office recently received 20 X26 Taser guns, the newest model on the market, via a grant at a cost of $800 apiece.
For four Mondays, groups of sheriff's deputies gathered at the old Canfield Insurance building in Ephrata to learn how the use the Taser.
To earn the right to use the weapon, sheriff's officers must either feel a one-second charge or the full five-second blast from the Taser. Deputy Dean Hallatt, the instructor of the course, said getting a taste of the weapon allows officers to better understand the effects of the weapons and affords them better credibility when warning suspects what the Taser can do.
While officers were not required to take the full five seconds, Hallatt "strongly encouraged" them to do so. Nearly all did.
Deputies learned what the Taser does and how it works before taking the hit, then took a test to become certified.
The Taser gun shoots out two probes that stick into the skin. The probes send 50,000 volts of electricity through the body for five seconds but only .004 amps. Hallatt said the volts are not dangerous, but amps are, which is why the weapons have been lauded for their safety.
The Taser has a maximum range of about 21 feet.
The person hit with the weapon cannot move for five seconds but can get up afterward and start to fight again, as was shown on a training video.
A sheriff's deputy had an early, surprise opportunity to use the weapon. Last Friday, a woman was threatening to commit suicide by holding a knife to her throat at her home on Dodson Road outside of Ephrata.
After failing to deter her, sheriff's deputies broke down the door, and Deputy Colin Hyer shot her with the Taser gun, forcing her to drop the knife and be taken into custody.
The Tasers are not injury free, though Hallatt said all the injuries are a result of the fall afterward from the person who was shot.
In the case of the woman, she was taken to the hospital for minor puncture wounds from the probes.
Tasers, which look like small handguns only with a square muzzle, have been useful in the case of hostage situations and mentally disturbed individuals, Hallatt said. In fact, he added, the weapon has been used on people standing in water with no permanent damage.
Despite all the tools the Taser brings to law enforcement, it is still not a replacement for a standard handgun, Hallatt said.
"If it calls for deadly force, use deadly force," he said. |
