Should all police be allowed to use these 50,000 volt tasers with no firearms training? I say no.?

Question

I get the feeling they would deploy them far too often in order to make arrests easier.

Answer 1

Police are trained in any weapon they use.

Answer 2

Any Taser question should be preceded by a visit to the Taser website. That way, ignorant questions and responses can be avoided. The question is good, some of the responses are misinformed. It is obvious who does the job and who either wishes they could or who never could just by the maturity of the responses.

Tasers don't injure people with pacemakers, pregnant women (to include the baby), drunks, people high on stimulants with elevated heart rates, juveniles, etc. These devices have been tested on tens of thousands of willing volunteers (in Taser training) with NO deaths. There is no credible, Taser specific, death recorded in the US. Of course, if you believe the criminal advocacy groups such as Amnesty International or the ACLU, there may be a couple. Either way, the majority of injury that results from the Taser is a result of secondary injury, or in other words, what the subject was doing prior to being tased. If they are running, and they fall because of the Taser, the fall and slide is what really hurts.

Finally, by definition, the Taser is not a firearm. It was not designed to be a firearm. It does not expel a projectile by use of any sort of explosion. The darts are deployed by use of a compressed gas. With the logic in the question, all airsoft, pellet guns, bows, crossbows, slingshots, etc. should require firearms training.

Luckily though, the question is a moot point. All departments have a formalized firearms program and, if they carry the Taser, they have a Taser training program. So, while carrying a Taser should never require firearms training, it just so happens that officers are "cross trained" in both anyways.

Again, the most important part of this... it is easier to do a little research prior to posting a question or posting an ignorant response than it is to discredit your point of view in a public forum based solely on lack of information.

Answer 3

I think that the Police have a right to protect themselves from mindless thugs, but it does worry me that somewhere along the line there will be a fatality, for example, if the person had some sort of health problem. If as you say they give off 50,000 volts this is a bit scary. I also worry that some Officers, the bully kind, will use them indiscriminately. I think that only Firearms Officers should be deployed with them and not just ordinary plods.

Answer 4

I am a firearms officer who is already authorised in the use of Taser. I have yet to use it.

My view is that front line officers should be adequately equipped to protect themselves and the public. It wasn't many months ago that an officer lost his life tackling a man with a knife. Gas and a baton are not often effective. Knives are the most common weapon that officers come up against. Why shouldn't they have adequate protection. The officers will be as trained in its use as I am. Any other firearms training is simply not necessary.

If people want to wield knives then they are in no position to complain if they are subsequently Tasered.

Likewise why should the officers fight a well built man and risk injury if they can stop him by use of Taser. If people want to be aggressive then they should accept the consequences.

Taser is not a dangerous weapon as perceived by some. It incapacitates the subject with little or no after effects. The subject is more likely to injured falling to the ground. The police will not be allowed to use it 'willy nilly' and will have to justify its use as we do now.

**** To all you US cops and citizens...... I believe the question relates to non-firearms officers in the UK who have commenced trialling the use of Taser.*******

Answer 5

Taser and Firearm are needed. The 50,000 volt thing is overhyped. Thats not alot of volts. Its the amps that kill people. A taser is less then 1 amp.
Having been hit with a taser for the full 5 seconds.

Answer 6

i do no longer think that any you may desire to be harmed in any police war of words fairly if the police officer is interior the incorrect. right here (in Cincinnati) there became a touch female who became very much stunned with a taser gun, a whilst returned, on a school bus. notwithstanding the alternative, the 9 mm weapons they carry about, is plenty worse than a taser i believe that there is an option to such pointless bodily risky rigidity. Bean bags, that have been used right here additionally, are only as undesirable. yet, i might fairly my family individuals member, in the event that they have been a police officer, to taser somebody than to shoot and kill them. regrettably, the taser is a needed gadget although cops could desire to be pronounced and taught whilst and the thank you to apply those thoroughly and could be re-experienced each 6 months or so. this might enable them to arise to date on any technological advances that have been made or any study appropriate to the long-term outcomes of being very much stunned "with 50,000 volts of electrical energy."

Answer 7

It is easy to say 'no' until you need the police to rescue you from a situation. It is a similar attitude to those who object to the enforcement of speed limits, but think the traffic is too fast where they live.
The most important thing a firearms officer is taught is the use of restraint. If non-firearms officers ae used, the training will have to be much more than the present three days. I suspect that the training will be inadequate for reasons of cost, and would therefore prefer the situation to be unchanged.

Answer 8

The police will be fully trained for any piece of kit they carry. I think they are a fantastic idea. Anything that makes the police more mennacing to criminals is a good thing. Its about time the police were feared by those doing wrong rather than derided.
If you behave yourself you wont get 50,000V passed thru you. If you dont then you might

Answer 9

Name a police department that is not firearms trained?

If you mean theyy should be trained on the taser before being allowed to carry them....we are. We get tasered and are instructed on it's use. You'd rather get tasered then shot, no?

Answer 10

You must have a strange police department if they have no firearms training. Everywhere I have lived, they get trained and have to recertify every year. Taser training is a seperate class.

Answer 11

Yes, I think you are right. Once they are on general issue, they will start to be used routinely, at least, that is the danger.

I have a theory about where the pressure may have come from to have 'Tasars' issued routinely. Firstly, there has definitely been an increase in the likelihood that the Police will come under attack from certain members of the public arising out of a general disrespect for law and order, and secondly, an increasing number of females joining the Police force in recent years. Now, taking these two things together, it is highly likely that there will have been pressure brought to bear to afford greater protection for officers, particularly female officers, who are more likely to need to employ them. That, of course, is one of the problems, because, apart from being extremely painful, they can be lethal.