Gizmodo: taser international

Grenade Launcher Taser Can Hit People 197 Feet Away

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:59:59 EST

This is exactly what the world needs: Another taser. This one can be fired using a standard 40-millimeter grenade launcher, which gives it a 197-foot range—three times the range of the XREP. Supposedly, it's non-lethal. Some disagree:

There is a known risk of severe injury from impact projectiles, either from blunt force at short ranges or from hitting a sensitive part of the body.

That's what security researcher Neil Davison says. Given the strength of the grenade launcher, it sounds logical. On the other side, Wes Burgei—an engineer at the US Department of Defense's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate—says that the device is designed to "reduce the projectile's mass and mitigate the impact forces on the target through innovative projectile-nose design." Whatever. I bet the target would prefer this to a bullet round.

The development cost for the military taser is $2.5 million, but it'll be totally free for soon-to-be-incapacitated victims worldwide. [New Scientist]

Taser Found Liable in Wrongful Death Suit, Bad News for Taser

Adam Frucci — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:15:00 EDT

Taser International, the company behind the new delightful trend in law enforcement where using verbal communication is deemed too time-consuming and replaced with a extremely painful jolt from their patented electro-weapons, was just dealt a stinging blow in court. After winning 45 wrongful death or injury lawsuits, it just lost a $6 million wrongful death suit, paving the way for plenty more liability in the future.

The suit, filed by the family of 40-year-old Robert Heston Jr. Heston was killed when the police tased him, the autopsy finding that he "died from a combination of methamphetamine intoxication, an enlarged heart due to long-term drug abuse, and Taser shocks." The jury found that Heston was 85% at fault, making Taser 15% responsible for his death.

While Taser spun this as a good thing (we only 15% killed him! Huzzah!), their 12% drop in stock price tells more truth. If Taser is suddenly liable for the damage done to people when taze-happy cops use their weapons, they'll quickly go out of business. Because while for most people a taze is just a seriously unpleasant experience, it's obvious that it has the potential to be far more dangerous for people with heart conditions. [Danger Room]

Taser's TRAD Security System Detects/Zaps Intruders

kevinhall2 — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:01:18 EDT

The concept behind Taser International's Taser Remote Area Denial system, or TRAD, is simple: Intruder detected, intruder zapped. We're talking an entire array of networked sensors and cameras, operating a battery of stun-guns, ready to incapacitate a threat at the push of a button–or the behest of the governing system.

Taser International is calling this setup its "TASERNET." Hoping to beef up defenses, these TASERNETs would be deployed around a variety of installations, like command centers, depots, and checkpoints, or even get hauled along during an air insertion or a spec ops assignment for (hopefully) non-lethal takedowns. Once a target is identified as a threat either by visual or by the system, said target is then stunned and remains stunned until authorities arrive. One mildly chilling detail is that the system can be programmed to identify foes on its own, cutting out the human operator.

If you were hoping to secure this for your home or small business, that might be tricky. The number listed specifically connects you to a "TASER Military Specialist." Still, check out the first link for one of those eerie military demo vids (if only to see a cow get tased around 2/3 of the way through).

TRAD demo video
TRAD site [Taser via Wired]