The opinon of a Cardiologist and a rival company believe that under certain circumstances Tasers can cause arrhythmic death. The subject needs more study.

Link

This article echoes my thinking about the reported Taser fatalities. It also examines where the Taser falls in the use of force spectrum. All of the people who are concerned about Taser deaths would do well to read this.

Link

I think there needs to be more study of the effects of the Taser. Simply reading newspaper accounts doesn't provide enough information about the circumstances under which people are dying. There is rarely any follow up from after the first article.

Link

Taser has created a munition that can be deployed by a shotgun. I think this probably has some utility for law enforcement officers, but I would certainly suggest using dedicated shotguns with taser-only markings.

Many departments have dedicated shotguns for shooting bean-bags, with brightly colored markings to prevent confusion. The concern is that if a shotgun is fired other officers might assume that there is a deadly threat and begin shooting.

Between Freedom Sight and Hell in a Handbasket there has been some discussion about tasers and my previous taser post: Self Defense Use of Tasers.

My earlier post was not about home defense scenarios, but rather street confrontations. It was my oversight to not consider the taser for home defense. I think this oversight was due to the fact that the Taser is totally unsuitable for this role.