Police officers must be running out of room on their belts with the introduction of taser guns.

They are being introduced to overcome the inaccuracies of capsicum spray, which has caused the police a few sore eyes.

There are also other difficulties with the use of capsicum spray. It blinds people and causes extreme pain, supposedly enabling police to gain physical control over a person who is not co-operating.

In a lot of cases, the use of the spray has made people more violent and more uncooperative, resulting in a bigger problem for the police and on occasion leading to damage of police property.

I think tasers will create the same problem. They will control some, but it is the people who have had a lot of alcohol or drugs or both that are the hardest to handle.

These people have dulled senses – especially when it comes to feeling pain.

Here is some information from Wikipedia describing to what the taser does:

“Electroshock weapon technology uses a temporary high-voltage low-current electrical discharge to override the body's muscle-triggering mechanisms. The recipient is immobilised via two metal probes connected via metal wires to the electroshock device.

“The recipient feels pain, and can be momentarily paralysed while an electric current is being applied. It is reported that applying electroshock devices to more sensitive parts of the body is even more painful.

“The maximum effective areas for stun gun usage are upper shoulder, below the rib cage and the upper hip.

”The relatively low electric current must be pushed by high voltage to overcome the electrical resistance of the human body. The resulting 'shock' is caused by muscles twitching uncontrollably, appearing as muscle spasms.

“Experts generally agree that the 'margin' of safety in this case is highly dependent on the overall health of the person subjected to the shock. The higher the voltage, the more adverse it is.

“According to the many sources, a shock of a half-second duration will cause intense pain and muscle contractions, startling most people greatly. Two to three seconds will often cause the subject to become dazed and drop to the ground, and over three seconds will usually completely disorient and drop an attacker for at least several seconds.

”TASER International warns law enforcement agencies that ‘prolonged or continuous exposure(s) to the TASER device’s electrical charge’ may lead to medical risks such as cumulative exhaustion and breathing impairment. Because there is no automatic stop on a taser gun, many officers have used it repeatedly or for a prolonged period of time, thus potentially contributing to suspects’ injuries or death.”

I don’t like seeing new weapons introduced. I don’t believe that weapons are the answer.

The use of the taser may have very real implications for the police officer using it. There seems to be a fine line between the use of the taser for one, two or three seconds, and the risk to a person’s health obviously gets much more serious.

I would not feel comfortable using a weapon of this nature, particularly when a person’s behaviour is uncooperative because they are intoxicated or on drugs.

What do you think? Is such a weapon necessary?