New and improved taser overcomes clothing and fur
Insulation often prevents full immobilization; new technique takes advantage of instinct to pull out the barbs; once touched, an extra shock is transmitted to the criminal’s bare hands
Here is a shocking new development. Not content with the tasers already on the market, the federal government is funding a project with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser International to develop a new state of the art stun gun system — one that delivers more bang for the buck, so to speak. Tasers, readers may know, discharge a pair of barbed electrodes that stick in the recipent’s clothes (or fur, in the case of a bear or an unruly New York matron.) The clothes, however, act as insulation against the charge, and so the shock is sometimes not as potent as the law enforcement officer would prefer.
This problem looks like it has been resolved. According to a patent application for the new and improved taser, the device uses modified barbs that include an extra electrode on their rears. When a person is hit with the taser, researchers observed, their natural instinct is to grab them to pull them out. When the new taser barbs are used, however, this unfortunate instinct connects the victim’s hands to the circuit, thereby discharging a powerful shock directly into their body. Pretty clever, no?
-read more in Taser International’s patent application
