CROWD CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES - Omega Research Foundation

The report also stated that )these devices are widely available and heavily promoted, despite
limited research into their safety or efficiency and despite recent animal studies documenting their
potential for lethality(. 239 In 1991, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission stated that )The only
electronic weapon evaluated by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission was the TASER in
1976". 240 However the Commission noted that )...At the outset, it was recognised that the product, as
manufactured, is a )dangerous weapon( and that the Commissions role was to assess the risk of
unreasonable injury rather than the unreasonable risk of injury( [emphasis added](. 241 Despite
only testing the TASER, Stun guns using similar theory were introduced without further evaluation. )In
1983, the stun gun was introduced, reportedly using the same electrical theory as the TASER. The
output of the device was designed to be just slightly less than that of the TASER in its shock values
and pulse profiles. ...The manufacturer stated that the stun gun was )designed under standards set by
the Underwriters Labs, the US Government Product Safety Commission, and the US Bureau of
Standards after they conducted extensive tests on pulsed electric fields.... It was claimed that )under
the guidelines set by the United States Government Consumer Product Safety Commission...it would
effectively immobilize an attacker without any risk of being lethal or causing injury(. 242
The Office of the General Counsel of the US Product Safety Commission, in a series of letters and
memoranda, responded to the manufacturer claims by stating that )Although no agency of the United
States government exists which is called the United States Government Product Safety Commission,
the name is sufficiently similar to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission to lead the
public to believe that this agency is the one to which the advertisement makes reference( and went on
to state that )Any and all statements that the commission has endorsed the safety of this product are
false. The fact that we tested the TASER has no bearing on the Nova XR-5000 (stun gun) which we
have never seen(...)Your consumer brochure indicated that the Commission has set safety guidelines,
which it has not. Furthermore your police brochure indicates that the Commission declared that it would
be impossible for harm to result from this combination of voltage, amperage, and pulse. I am not aware
of any staff document containing such a statement(. 243
In 1984, the Douglas County, Nebraska Sheriffs office commissioned an evaluation of the Nova
XR-5000 Electronic Stun gun. 244 The report concluded that )cardiac muscle tissue appears to be
completely insensitive to its effects(. The author draws a similar conclusion from a later study 245 but a
conclusion that is contradicted by a 1989 report that describes apparent ventricular fibrillation
associated with the direct epicardial application of a stun gun to exposed pig hearts. 246 Research
conducted by United Kingdom Home Office scientists on stun guns indicated that they can cause high
levels of pain and even death through ventricular fibrillation in certain circumstances. 247
Injuries and deaths associated with stun weapons have been reported in Los Angeles, 248 249 250 ,
other cities in the USA 251 , within US prisons 252 and the UK. 253 254 Stun weapons have also been
reported as having a causal link with the miscarriage of a pregnant woman. 255 The author of the report
on miscarriage stated that )As use of the TASER becomes more common, obstetrical clinicians may
encounter complications from the TASER more often(. It was reported in November 1994 that a woman
had killed her 7-month nephew with an electric stun gun in an effort to stop him crying. 256
It is not only incidents in the United States that have highlighted the lack of independent technical,
medical or legal evaluations. The need for such investigations on electric batons was one of the key
conclusions of the South African Joint Committee report on the 31 July 1996 incident at Tembisa
railway station. The report noted that )Even the manufacturers concede that the electric baton is
experienced differently by different people. The electric batons may cause current induced effects on
the heart or on other electro-sensitive parts( and that )Even the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC), an international body which represents international technical consensus on
electrical equipment does not yet offer any reference points for evaluating certain kinds of electric
pulses as far as their effects on human organism are concerned. The use of electric batons may entail
secondary heart and circulation effects which may constitute a danger in the case of persons with
xxxiii