Authorities worry about Tasers being sold in malls

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Tasers, the weapons police use to immobilize suspects with a 50,000-volt shock, may be available at the mall as soon as this fall.

Taser International and retailer Sharper Image are negotiating to make the store the only national retailer to carry Tasers. Although Tasers have been publicly available through phone sales and the company Web site, taser.com, for more than eight years, some police officers worry that wider availability might open the door to criminal use.

There are five Sharper Image stores in the Las Vegas Valley, and the prospect of Tasers being available to the public here has Metro Sheriff Bill Young concerned.

"I'm personally opposed to that," Young said Monday, adding that he will go to the Legislature "to attempt to harness" public access to Tasers.

The plan for the Sharper Image store sales is to distribute the Taser X26C, a variation of the Taser X26 and M26 toted by many police officers.

The Taser X26C is designed for personal security. The cycle of electricity from the gun lasts up to 30 seconds -- a person can shoot the Taser, and the probe will continue to deliver an electric shock even if the shooter drops the gun to the ground to escape danger.

The two probes that shoot from the weapon are connected to 15-foot wires, 6 feet shorter than the ones used in law enforcement.

"It's nonlethal, yet it's extremely effective," said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International. "People can feel confident that they can knock down the most difficult of targets."

But Tasers don't always work. A New York Times report last weekend indicated that since 2001, at least 50 people have died after being shocked by stun guns. No federal or state agencies have studied the safety or effectiveness of Tasers, which are essentially unregulated. Nor has any federal agency determined the cause of the deaths, the Times said.

But Tuttle said the Taser is an ideal personal security device.

"It hasn't been a magic bullet, because there are no magic bullets, but the success rate in the field has been 94 to 97 percent," he said.

If Sharper Image decides to sell the product, the store will offer a training class, spokeswoman Suzie Tatum said. The stores will also keep a copy of every buyer's identification on record.

Young said one of his concerns is that criminal will use Tasers.

Tuttle said the weapon has built-in safeguards against criminal use of Tasers. When the probes are shot, 20 to 30 pieces of bright pink, yellow and clear confetti scatter from the cartridge. Each piece of confetti contains a serial number that can be traced to the owner, Tuttle said.

"It's like leaving 20 or 30 business cards at the scene of a crime," he said. "We can't prevent criminal activity, but we sure can deter it."

If the two companies reach an agreement, Tuttle said, Sharper Image will sell the product as soon as this fall.