Editorial: Tasers better than guns

OPINION: One year, nine victims and no deaths. That's the report card on the Taser after one year in use by New Zealand police.

Tasers, which during the trial period were previously only available in Auckland, Waitemata, Counties Manukau and Wellington, will be rolled out throughout the country.

There had been fears the police may be more inclined to be trigger happy with a Taser, knowing that the outcome will be different from using a handgun. Figures released by police seem to indicate this has not been the case.

The name Taser is an acronym for Thomas A. Swifts Electric Rifle, named for the science-fiction teenage inventor and adventurer character Tom Swift. Taser devices, according to the manufacturers, use proprietary technology to quickly incapacitate dangerous, combative or high-risk subjects who pose a risk to law enforcement officers, innocent citizens or themselves. What that means is that the Taser gun fires barbs which penetrated the skin and deliver a 50,000-volt electric shock.

Opponents of the Taser say it is a dangerous weapon that has been responsible for causing deaths in other countries. Medical opinion says many of these deaths were from other factors such as heart attacks in people who already had a pre-existing condition, not directly from the Taser itself. In the past year no New Zealand Taser victims have died.

Police say that since its introduction the Taser has probably saved several lives as some of the incidents where it was used were so violent, the offender could have been shot with a firearm, if the stun gun had not been available.

The use of Tasers is not without risk. But the risks associated with being shot with a Taser are certainly less than the risks associated with being shot with a firearm.

It seems that we have to resign ourselves to the fact that New Zealand no longer has an "unarmed" police force.

While this is not something that will sit well with many New Zealanders it is a sign of the times as police are forced to defend themselves against increasingly violent and desperate criminals.

- The Marlborough Express

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