TASER Devices Are Effective Non-Lethal Personal Protection

I recently retired from law enforcement after a 25 year career. During my 25 years in law enforcement I have seen many non-lethal protection devices come and go. Until a few years ago, pepper spray and batons were the only non-lethal way that police officers could protect themselves. Then the TASER Gun was introduced in 1993. Now it is used by thousands of military base security officers, police departments, security officers, private investigators, bounty hunters and private citizens throughout the world.

TASER Guns fire 50,000 Volts 15 feet at 180 feet per second. Law enforcement officers say they have the equivalent stopping power of a .357 Magnum pistol. The TASER is considered to be the best non-lethal protection you can own for your home, business and while in a motor vehicle. TASERS have been deployed by 5,500 of the 16,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and the list is still growing.

Now available to the public, the consumer TASER C2 is the best non-lethal device to help protect you and your family. Why? Because it is easy to use and very effective. Over the years I have used and seen a TASER used many times by police officers on all types of individuals and it brought them to the ground. Unlike a firearm TASERS only require minimal training to perfect and carry much less liability then a firearm.

Man bursts into flames when hit by stun gun

By KRISTEN GELINEAU Associated Press Writer

SYDNEY (AP) - A man whose relatives say had been sniffing gasoline burst into flames after a police officer Tasered him as he ran at officials carrying a container of fuel, police said Tuesday.

The man, identified by his family as 36-year-old Ronald Mitchell, was in critical condition at a Perth hospital in Western Australia state following Monday's incident in Warburton, an Aboriginal community 950 miles (1,540 kilometers) northeast of Perth.

Western Australia police said they were responding to a complaint at a house when Mitchell ran outside carrying a cigarette lighter and a large plastic bottle containing what they believe was fuel. When he refused to stop running toward them, one officer Tasered him, police said in a statement.

The man was immediately engulfed in flames. The officer threw him to the ground and smothered the blaze with his hands, the statement said. Mitchell was charged with assault to prevent arrest and possession of a sniffing substance.

An 18-year-old woman threw rocks at the officer as he tried to help, and he was later treated for a cut on his head and burns to his hands, police said.

The woman was charged with two counts of assaulting an officer, police Sgt. Graham Clifford said. Two others at the house were charged with possessing a sniffing substance.

Mitchell's sister, Morinda West, told The Australian newspaper that her brother had been sniffing gasoline and that when he ran out of the house he was carrying a lighter and an orange juice container full of gasoline.

Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said Mitchell appeared to have received third-degree burns to about ten percent of his body.

Western Australia Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan defended the officer's actions on Tuesday, calling Mitchell a known gasoline sniffer and violent offender.

"The police officers were concerned that they were going to be burnt so they deployed a Taser," O'Callaghan told reporters in Perth. "The only other choice they would have had is to use a police-issue firearm and the circumstances would almost certainly have been far more grave."

O'Callaghan also said that while Mitchell did burst into flames after the Taser was deployed, it wasn't immediately clear if the stun gun actually sparked the fire.

"There is a very strong possibility the fire was caused by the lighter in the hand of the offender," he said.

The officer who Tasered Mitchell was not suspended, Clifford said.

The Seven Keys of Personal Safety

(By Michael Linehan of Real World Safety)

As I was thinking about what concrete safety ideas to write about for this article, it occurred to me to put a summary of "the whole thing."

When we were writing our book (Real World Safety for Women), we researched many others. We really did find that they mostly fell into two groups — either they contained huge numbers of points in many bulleted lists, or they were written like novels leaving the reader to pick out what exactly to do.

Until we saw this, we really didn't have a clear idea of the shape of the book. Then it became obvious - to design the book as an effective learning tool and to condense our knowledge into PRINCIPLES that would be easy to remember and simple to apply to every area of one's life.

Here they are — a review for those who already know them, a mini, super-condensed personal safety course for those who don't.

The Seven Core Principles:

1.) Nurture Your Believe in Yourself

When you believe in yourself, you'll trust your wisdom and your strength. You'll trust your perceptions and you'll believe you have the right to your emotional and physical well-being. You're much more likely to do what you need to protect yourself.

2.) Understand Reality --- and FACE IT

When I first wrote this, I wrote just "understand reality." Then it occurred to me, almost like a blinding flash, that many folks understand reality, but don't really face it full on. Completely see and accept reality and you'll be miles closer to being safe and being in charge of your life.

3.) Stay Aware

We might almost say "Stay awake." We're all often daydreaming, I think. Stay aware, wherever you are, whatever you are doing. This is really just the same as the idea of "being present" - leading not only to being safer, but potentially to greater enjoyment of the moment by moment experience of being alive.

4.) Trust Your Intuition

I now always say in classes, "If you ignore or forget everything else I say today, remember this one thing... If your intuition is warning you, there IS something wrong. Trust it, and act to increase your safety." That's how strongly I believe in the importance of intuition. (Anyone who hasn't read Gavin de Becker's book "The Gift of Fear" on this really should.)

5.) Develop Your Body's Language of Strength

Looking strong and confident makes you MUCH less likely to be targeted.

6.) Set Boundaries

One woman, after doing our weekend Intensive, ended literally years of office harassment with a couple of sentences. I don't remember exactly the words she told us but it was something along the lines of, "That is degrading and offensive. It's harassment. I don't like it and no woman does. You - will - never - speak - to - me - like - that - again." (All spoken with 100% congruence and the eyes of cold fire.) We have heard so many times that a just a few words was all that was necessary to end a situation, be it harassment or potential attack.

7.) Fight Back

Applying all your wisdom and the ideas above makes the possibility of attack much less likely. But it still might happen. And if it does, as we have said many times, there is only one way to fight - 100%. And remember, at that point you are not "defending" as such (in the sense of reacting to each of his attacking moves), you are now "counter-attacking" ; completely taking control with a force of energy like a cross between a pit-bull mother defending her young,
a grizzly bear, a tiger and a Klingon.

Don't hold back
Don't hold back your caring and belief in yourself
Don't hold back the wisdom of your awareness
and intuition.
Don't hold back your strength and courage in your
body, voice and fighting spirit.
Don't hold back.
If you let yourself go, you can take care of just
about anything.

Do You And Your Family Know Where To Meet?

I was driving by a fire station recently and the sign out front read; "Do You and Your Family Know Where To Meet?"

As I got farther down the street it finally dawned on me what message they were trying to get across. In the event of a natural disaster do you and your family have a plan. If meeting back at home is out of the question then what other options are there?

It is important all family members know what to do in the event of an earthquake, etc. A proper plan will help relieve the stress associated with the event.

For more information on creating a Family Disaster Plan click here.

Clerk: Pharmacist used Taser to thwart robbery

By Mark Leberfinger, mleberfinger@altoonamirror.com
POSTED: January 17, 2009


An incapacitating shock from a Taser quickly ended a robbery attempt at a pharmacy in Altoona Friday morning.

Adam Lee Thompson, 26, of 3192 Coupon-Gallitzin Road, Ashville, was taken into custody in the parking lot of The Medicine Shoppe, 2411 Eighth Ave.

He was arrested on charges of robbery, criminal attempt, simple assault and possession of instruments of crime, Altoona police said.

The robbery occurred as pharmacist Jim Rosenthall opened for business at 9 a.m.

A clerk told two customers Friday afternoon that ”Jim got to use his Taser today.”

One of them asked if there was a robbery.

The clerk said, ”Yes.”

The man left the business, but he was followed by Rosenthall and a customer.

”A customer tackled him, and Jim used his Taser on him,” the clerk said.

”Good for you,” the customer said.

Rosenthall didn’t enter the conversation.

He apologized and declined comment when asked about the robbery attempt.

Thompson wore a ski mask and brandished a knife in his demand for OxyContin from the pharmacy, arrest papers state.

Later in the day, he covered his head and face with the hood of his jacket and lowered his head while officers Shane Strobel and Daniel Noel took Thompson into Magisterial District Judge Todd F. Kelly’s office for arraignment.

”I’m not proud of what I did,” Thompson told Strobel and Noel before they took him to Blair County Prison.

Thompson was committed to the county lockup on a Cambria County probation detainer and in lieu of $30,000 cash bail.

Rosenthall bought two Tasers, both the civilian Taser C2 model, after a July knifepoint robbery at his business, said the seller, Scott Henck of East Coast Gun Sales.

”We trained [him] and his employees on how to use them, what to expect and what they would do,” Henck said.

The C2 is similar to the law enforcement model carried locally by Logan Township and state police except for the effective distance it will fire its probes that carry the incapacitating shock, and the duration of the charge, Henck said.

”It was a win-win situation. No one was hurt,” he said.

Rosenthall received a replacement unit from East Coast until Taser International can send him a new one, Henck said.

Thompson’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Central Court.