From cnn.com:
Before she lets them shoot her little pink stun gun, Dana Shafman ushers her new friends to the living room sofa for a serious chat about the fears she believes they all share.
“The worst nightmare for me is, while I’m sleeping, someone coming in my home,” Shafman says, drawing a few solemn nods from the gathered women.
Shafman, 34, of Phoenix, says she knows how they feel. She says she used to stash knives under her pillow for protection.
Welcome, she says, to the Taser party.
On the coffee table, Shafman spreads out Taser’s C2 “personal protector” weapons that the company is marketing to the public. It doesn’t take long before the women are lined up in the hallway, whooping as they take turns blasting at a metallic target.
The full article is here.
Taser use by police has become highly controversial with the death of several persons in questionable circumstances. There are more anecdotes than hard evidence but in all likelihood the balance is in favor of using the Taser as a non-lethal alternative when force is required. That the Taser is now moving into a consumer market is troubling – use of these devices requires training and the the user should also be fully qualified in CPR and other advanced first aid procedures since the Tasered individual not infrequently has a major unintended reaction. What is especially interesting is that the “Taser Party,” replacing perhaps the Tupperware party, reflects the degree of fear so many women still harbor about violence in their lives. That should bring more attention than any device intended to protect against that possibility.
-Ralph Michael Stein
