Tasers are not toys
I was astounded to learn recently, via a U.S. television documentary, that high-powered tasers for domestic use are available online from United States outlets. Such use is legal in that country, even though the voltage available is double what is legal for police use in Canada. (I’ll look up the figures later; don’t have time right now.) What’s more, the taser manufacturers are targeting women and have made taser models in various pastel colors with a smooth, sleek design that makes them look more like a hygiene or styling device, not a killing weapon. That’s sick.
In the last week, I saw yet another TV commercial promoting the ridiculous reality show with Gene Simmons and his family. Can’t even remember the name of the program and don’t want to know. Anyway, the episode they were previewing showed Simmons’ wife hosting the equivalent of a Tupperware party at home; however, the new product that she and her tipsy friends were sampling was not some innocuous kitchen container, but . . .tasers. Unbelievable! These middle-aged women, all drunk, were zapping each other with tasers for kicks. Wow, what entertainment.
Meanwhile, according to the same documentary that I mentioned, cops in the U.S. now have access to tasers that shoot from a rifle-style gun and have a range of 1,000 feet.
Tasers are a touchy subject (pardon the pun) here in British Columbia and Canada, after four police officers tasered Polish citizen Robert Dziekanski numerous times at the Vancouver International Airport in October 2007. The unarmed man, agitated because he had waited many hours for his mother to arrive and no one could understand his language, later died as a result of the volts he received.