A Stun Gun making an electrical arc between its two electrodes (Photo credit: Wikiped
- Modern TASERs are great for law enforcement use as an intermediate force option to subdue a suspect to reduce the possibility of a Rodney King type incident.
- TASERs must be carried in a manner that is different from how a handgun is carried.
- Officer Johannes Mesehrle learned this the hard way when he went to prison for manslaughter for unintentionally shooting and killing Oscar Grant.
- TASERs are the only electroshock weapon that I recommend at this time simply because of the ability it has to shoot a projectile and its proven effectiveness.
- It’s better than nothing!
- TASERs are bulky!
- The law enforcement duty belt is generally a bit thicker and designed to carry a wide variety of equipment (civilian CCW belts are not as thick because the mission is different)
- I personally carry a can of pepper gas as a less lethal weapon that complements the handgun.TASER cartridges are not cheap and are not conducive to dry practice.
- Pepper gas is less bulky than a TASER
- Places that handguns are generally illegal to own or carry are often the same places where TASERs are illegal to own or carry.Off body carry of a TASER has the same problems that off body carry of a handgun or pepper spray has.
- Think of Washington DC and New York City…
- Pepper gas is legally allowed in places where TASERs are not legally allowed.
- TASERs require a concealment holster that allows for the TASER to be readily accessed under stress.
- TASERs give you one shot at fifteen feet and then it becomes a contact weapon, which makes it suboptimal against multiple assailants.
- TASERs can also be a fire hazard in certain circumstances.
- Think about what happened to Michael Jackson when he filmed that Pepsi commercial back in the 1980s.
- Vulnerable to thick clothing on the assailant(s)
- Prods may have difficult penetrating thick clothing during the winter months.
- After the first shot, the TASER relies on extended contact with the assailant
- The point of a less than lethal weapon is to create pain to escape.
- Most of the stun guns you see at gun shows, gun shops, and head shops are cheap junk that are more noisemakers or torture devices than anything else.
Electric weapon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
RealDefense 
Whenever I read comments that refer to stun guns as noisemakers, worthless junk or toys, I’m reminded of what to me is an important consideration. People who want to carry guns, carry guns; they are not the market for stun guns, though they may consider pepper spray to be a good idea.
People who do not want to carry a firearm either because it’s illegal where they are, they’re afraid of them or they don’t want someone’s death on their conscience, are not going to carry one, no matter how much their peers may say “just get a gun”. This is the market stun guns are aimed at. Without the stun gun, they would most likely carry nothing at all or maybe their keys between their fingers. I leave it to the individual to say whether they believe they will be more able to defend themselves with their bare hands or with a stun device.
If nothing else, just having it is a huge boost to a person’s confidence and peace of mind as they go about their daily business. That alone has genuine value and I think has to be considered. There is a real effectiveness and quality difference between a good model and a cheapo five buck eBay special, so I would recommend if a person were interested, they should at least choose a quality brand.
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I would recommend a TASER over a stun gun just for the projectile/contact weapon capabilities.
If you are going to carry a SABRE stun gun or a TASER then you need a quality holster that can be readily drawn from. The key term here is IFWA (In Fight Weapon Access).
The manual of arms for deploying a stun gun defensively is very similar to that of deploying a knife defensively.
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