Portland has its share of crazies; it has a visible undertow of drug addicts, including meth addicts, that blights the downtown area. It also has many homeless people whose mental health is dubious. Add diversity to the mix and the need for some form of protection becomes obvious.
I’d put off getting a taser for years. I wanted to get the type that can fire from several feet, but they’re rather expensive. A couple of days ago I finally made the leap. The young man behind the counter, at the gun store, explained that he would have to run a background check on me for the purchase.
“A background check? No problem” I thought. After all, I have no criminal history and nothing to fear. So why should there be a problem. But requiring background checks for tasers is a problem – when you consider that the taser won’t even work until it’s remotely activated by the manufacturer following a successful background check. I may be wrong, but it would appear that this would make it very difficult for a criminal, or an ex-convict, to acquire a working taser. Guns don’t need to be activated. Anybody can get a gun; if he can’t get one legally, he can buy one on the black market or steal one – and the gun will still work.
Taser International has this to say:
We at TASER International live and work to “Protect Life.” One of the ways we do live is by doing all we can to keep our life-saving devices out of the hands of criminals. We will not activate any TASER CEW without a clear felony background check. It’s the right thing to do because it protects all of us.
There are many decent people who have criminal records. People who were falsely accused and forced to take plea bargains. People who have mended their ways. People who made stupid mistakes or broke laws that make no sense. These people have the right to defend themselves and their families. It would make a lot of sense for them to have tasers. That way, they can do so without using lethal force. As it stands, since they cannot get tasers for this purpose, their only realistic alternative is a gun. You’re more likely to kill somebody with a gun than with a taser. You’re also more likely to end up with a long prison sentence and eat up valuable public resources in the process. There’s a lot more fallout if you use a gun against an intruder than if you use a taser.
While it’s true that a gun can be fired several times before it needs to be reloaded, while a taser has only one shot, there’s no reason we should not have both weapons in our arsenal. It doesn’t make sense to create a situation where a segment of the population has the option of using guns, but no option of using tasers. Just my two cents on the matter.
Perhaps convicted criminals could buy pepper spray.
Pepper spray doesn’t have nearly the stopping power of a shooting taser. It’s especially limited in an indoor setting; you’ll incapacitate yourself and all those around you as well as the intruder – assuming you even get close enough to use it. But somebody please correct me if I’m wrong about this assessment.
No you are completely correct.
You are are going to use indoors, you are going to be hurting only a little less than the guy you sprayed.
If you truly value life, then put a bullet in a thug’s worthless brain bucket and save yourself and society an expensive investigation and incarceration. People had more respect for cops before the taser, and before affirmative action women cops that were largely a consequence of it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57502545-504083/empire-state-building-shooting-sparks-questions-about-nypd-shot-accuracy/
This should chill you. 34% accuracy for trained police. For ordinary folks, you might land 4 out of 16 shots, which is pretty much just a decent minimum to put down a single large, doped up alpha male. If he has a partner, you are in very severe danger even with a gun. The taser is just a sick, overpriced joke.
Actually I got the taser for public places. For home defense I have more serious tools.
about say get yourself something decent this is coming from a aouth african rather carry a gun if you can otherwise a baton or knife.
*a south african
sorry
Taser companies are deluding themselves in making statements such as to “Protect life.” How can they protect the life of a dead person? If they really want to protect life they should take the device out of the hands of police, as it is they that are misusing and abusing the taser, because they can’t remember instructions and they also cannot count.
Instead of putting more gun control laws in place, I say more and more guns should be available to the public for conceal and carry. Since criminals can always illegally get their hands on guns, it would only make them more powerful to take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.