I’m interested in a small, like probably the smallest but still packing a punch, taser. I see no shortage of them online but need recommendations for a legit site and possibly brands. About the only thing I know about “stun guns” is I don’t want to test it on myself….

Lay it on me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dry-fly,

I thought you were asking about a restaurant or something.

-Rob

Contact 'Appliance Brad'. He is (or was) a dealer.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
I thought you were asking about a restaurant or something.

The OP might want to remove the apostrophe in Taser’s, which shows ownership rather than plural.

Apostrophes can be tricky. Sometimes they form possessives. Sometimes they form contractions. Can they ever make something plural?

The $30 stuns guns you can get at a flea market are more useless then … useless.

An actual Taser brand that fires darts, as used and carried by cops, is a very good product. I believe they cost like $1000…

Pepper spray is also worth carrying. I carried Safariland First Defense and have used and or seen it used hundreds of times and the stronger formulas are very effective.

quote:

Can they ever make something plural?

Very rarely. An example is forming the plural of a lowercase letter:

"Don't forget to dot your i's."

I don't have any experience with stun guns, but a taser can be effective. The taser we carry is this model. I'm not sure if this is available for purchase for the non LE market though.

Taser and stun-gun are not interchangeable, so you’ll need to figure out what you are looking for.

A stun gun, as far as I’ve ever seen, is purely pain compliance at close range via electrical shock.

A Taser, when it works properly, supersedes the ability of the brain to move your body, to varying degrees. Yes, it provides pain compliance via electrical charge, but it does much more by hijacking your body, to say it bluntly. The Taser does this at a slight distance via the wired darts it shoots out, I believe by compressed nitrogen charge.

Tasers are not cheap and, in my direct experience, not 100% reliable. Too many factors at play. However, when they work it is magic.

Edit: when I say unreliable I mean it has failed me 3 out of 3 times regarding dart deployments. I don’t carry it anymore.

Edit 2: I’m not much help with stun guns, but I will add that the most success I’ve had using a Taser was in the equivalent “stun gun” mode (called Drive Stun in Taser vernacular) against large parolee. Drive Stunning him in the back of the next did get his attention

quote:

Tasers are not cheap and, in my direct experience, not 100% reliable. Too many factors at play. However, when they work it is magic

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Correct. Part of it appears to be where the perp is tased. In the back is best because there is less flesh. I have also been told to split the probes. One above the waist and the other below. Tasers are NOT stun guns.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Tasers are not cheap and, in my direct experience, not 100% reliable. Too many factors at play. However, when they work it is magic

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Correct. Part of it appears to be where the perp is tased. In the back is best because there is less flesh. I have also been told to split the probes. One above the waist and the other below. Tasers are NOT stun guns.

Correct… the wider the spread between the darts the more effect it will have. Draw a line between the 2 darts and anything not in that pathway may not be affected (think a leg or arm that isn’t in the pathway). Darts that are only a few inches apart won’t be near as affective. Of course, the wider the spread the greater the chance of missing with one or both (and one of the big downsides). Additionally, loose and heavy clothing is quite effective and preventing or minimizing the effect.

Www.taser.com

All the options, answers, costs, legalities etc.

Liability is not addressed.

As mentioned, a real TASER (Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle) fires darts and delivers a preset limited duration electrical pulse. Other types of electrical contact weapons, so-called “stun guns,” aren’t guns and don’t stun. They must be activated while in contact with the victim and cause localized site pain, but don’t immediately incapacitate the target by affecting large muscle groups like a TASER does. I’ve read of incidents in which victims were supposedly incapacitated by the contact devices, but if that’s true, it must require prolonged contact; a brief exposure doesn’t do that.

Whenever I read about a non-LEO’s thinking of relying on an electrical weapon or pepper spray for self-defense, I can only wonder what sort of encounter they expect to use it in. If we’re being stalked by a strong arm robber or rapist or aggressive animal, then a contact weapon might work once we’ve gotten to the grappling stage. Or maybe not.

On the other hand, as law enforcement officers are told, “Don’t take a TASER to a gun or knife fight.” Even devices that fire electrical probes don’t work all the time, and that’s why they’re not used for defense even against noncompliant subjects holding deadly weapons like clubs or knives unless there is lethal backup standing by. If a jogger has an electrical contact weapon in her waist pack and she’s jumped without warning, beaten to semiconsciousness by fist blows to the face, and dragged into the bushes, what good will the ECW do her? And that’s against someone who doesn’t have a knife or gun.

I’m not suggesting that nonlethal weapons have no value whatsoever, but it seems to me that they’re given far more potential credit than they deserve.

Like others have said, a stun gun would be worthless.

Taser makes civilian model called the Pulse. The Pulse will deploy for 30 seconds with a single trigger pull. I believe they designed it as one and done device, meaning you deploy the Taser, drop it and run away. Which in theory if worked the first time would give you a 30 second head start.

However, it cost $399.

https://taser.com/products/taser-pulse

Personally I would carry pepper spray before an any electrical device.

I carried a Taser as a cop for over a decade. Had plenty of opportunities to deploy it. When it works, it’s magic, when it doesn’t, you had better have a plan B.

I found out the hard way that someone hopped up on PCP will not be affected by the Taser. Dude grabbed my gun after I deployed the Taser, and it was on like Donkey Kong.

I have seen the other cheaper brands and stun guns on the market, trying to keep up with what and how something could hurt me.

And if I were to suggest one, it would be Taser Brand. You get what you pay for. If you use it, Taser will send you a new unit with a copy of a police report.

With all that being said, here’s what I EDC:
Ruger commander sized 1911
1 extra magazine(Wilson combat)
Spyderco Endura Knife
Phone
Money
Wallet
Retired police ID

When I walk I also carry a small can of OC spray for dogs.
I have a sap in the door pocket of my truck

If I’m somewhere I can’t carry my gun, I carry either the spray or sap, or I don’t go there.

But I don’t normally carry the less than lethal everywhere.

What do you want one for? And Why?

I'm not sure I see the value of one as a civilian. Police use them because they may face someone that's not a deadly threat that still needs to be put into custody. They also normally have lethal back up along side as a back-up.

Civilians wouldn't normally face that situation. If someone's sort of acting threatening but not coming immediately at you with deadly force, you don't have justification to shoot them and it means you're safe to walk away. Hitting that person with a Taser may make you the aggressor and cost you the element of innocence if you end up needing to finish with deadly force.
You need to be pretty close when using one too.
They are also another item that needs to be on your person or very accessible that is not easy to carry for civilians.
A good OC spray seems like the best step in between.
Just watch some of the YouTube videos of police using them and see how often they fail to have the desired effect.

Ok, Ok…. I INADVERTENTLY used the terms Taser and stun gun interchangeably. Sorry about that. No, Im not going to carry a police Taser nor am I shopping at a flea market for a stun gun.

A buddy relayed a situation he was in recently and it would seem prudent that some type of less than lethal protection would have served him well. I would think seeing a stun gun “activated” would deter someone from getting closer.??

The Taser I carried had two options
Drive Stun-no cartridge attached and it sparked across the opening where the cartridge went normally. This is just pain compliance
Cartridge inserted- two prongs were shot into the suspect and trailed little wires, the shock went to the prongs and across the muscles in between the prongs, shocking the suspect and causing his muscles to seize up-its also very painful


We were not allowed to display the Taser as a deterrent. Many people called it “sparking”.
We only did it to prove it worked at the beginning of the shift. And we did it in front of our patrol cars camera, to document it and prove the camera was working too.

The civilian model does not allow for a spark test. So you couldn’t scare someone by displaying it. It almost looks like a toy plastic gun

And if I were a badguy with a gun and you displayed a taser I’d probably shoot you. Even if I weren’t a badguy and you brandished one at me I’d probably shoot you. I can articulate that if you use it on me, you have 30 seconds to disarm me and use my gun on me.

^^ Gotcha, much appreciated.

I recently read something in a study that ECD’s were studied at with LAPD or LASD and they quoted a statistic that their success rate was only about 40 percent. I’m shocked that it’s that high.

I am not a fan.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I recently read something in a study that ECD’s were studied at with LAPD or LASD and they quoted a statistic that their success rate was only about 40 percent. I’m shocked that it’s that high.

I am not a fan.

I’ve tasted ten people, and that was back with the X-26 and whatever the bigger one was before that. Eight of them were getting shot if the taser didn’t work.

It worked on all 10.

I am a fan but you’ve really got to be sure to do it right and not even waste time if you know it won’t work. And you’ve got to be ready to go hands-on immediately.