You know what they say about experience, it’s the best teacher. The military knows just that, so they make sure that the Military Police on training understand the effects of their weapons by, of course, trying them for themselves. In fact, they have certifications for stuff like OC (pepper) spray training and taser training. What does a 50,000 shock of electricity coursing through your body feel like? The trainees could answer that for you.

Taser Technology

TIFNIT, Morocco (May 5, 2009)—Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Bradley A. Loudon (RIGHT), a nonlethal weapons instructor with Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, demonstrates the capabilities of a taser gun on Marine Corps Sergeant Joseph M. Cuffel, a military policeman with Military Police Company, Headquarters Battalion, 4th Marine Division, during Exercise AFRICAN LION. The annually scheduled, combined U.S.-Moroccan exercise is designed to improve interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s tactics, techniques, and procedures. (US. Marine Corps photo by Master Sgt. Grady T. Fontana, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

A taser works by sending electric shocks to temporarily incapacitate the target and enabling them to be approached, handled, and cuffed if needed in an unresisting and safe manner. It fires two small barbed darts that puncture the target’s skin and remain attached to them at a range from 15 feet, with a speed of 120 MPH. The range could be longer at 34 feet for Law Enforcement tasers. These darts are connected via a thin insulated copper wire that acts as the conductor of a modulated electric current. When fired, it disrupts the voluntary control of muscles, therefore causing neuromuscular incapacitation. Tasers are considered less-lethal, with their major effect being localized pain or strong involuntary muscle contractions on where the darts are attached.

Fatality

However, the tasers are not without risks. According to Fatal Encounters, 935 people were killed from incidents involving these tasers from 2000 to 2021. Presumably, that number would drop to zero if suspects did not violently resist being arrested.

The technology was first introduced in 1993 as a less-lethal option instead of firearms. According to the US Department of Justice, the number of taser use increased since then: