Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

December 20, 2007

Taser International's C2 stun gun is a civilian weapon that delivers the same incapacitating 50,000-volt charge emitted by the police model.

Police reaction to this new civilian self-defense weapon has been uniformly negative.

Watsonville, California Police Chief Manny Solano warns: ?If used improperly, it could constitute a crime.? Wendy Balazik of the International Association of Chiefs of Police frets that Tasers in civilian hands will make ?an already dangerous job [even] worse....?

But Tasers are already widely misused -- by police. They are used as instruments of pain compliance, rather than non-lethal means of dealing with violent criminals. They have been used on the elderly, on flustered, unarmed women, on mentally handicapped people, and on individuals in the throes of medical emergencies.

No matter how egregious the abuse, police are almost never punished for misuse of a Taser, which we are assured is a harmless weapon when used by police. How does it suddenly become dangerous when in civilian hands?

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.