Mission Statement - De-Spinning the Pro-Taser Propaganda

Yeah right, 'Excited Delirium' my ass...

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The primary purpose of this blog is to provide an outlet for my observations and analysis about tasers, taser "associated" deaths, and the behaviour exhibited by the management, employees and minions of Taser International. In general, everything is linked back to external sources, often via previous posts on the same topic, so that readers can fact-check to their heart's content. This blog was started in late-2007 when Canadians were enraged by the taser death of Robert Dziekanski and four others in a short three month period. The cocky attitude exhibited by the Taser International spokespuppet, and his preposterous proposal that Mr. Dziekanski coincidentally died of "excited delirium" at the time of his taser-death, led me to choose the blog name I did and provides my motivation. I have zero financial ties to this issue.



Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Please pass the 'Smoking Gun'

Link= Smoking Gun

The word 'vector' simply means where the probes are placed.

Conclusions: For most trans-cardiac vectors, TASER X26 caused immediate myocardial capture. This usually reverted spontaneously to sinus rhythm but potentially fatal VF [ventricular fibrillation] was seen with 2 vectors. For some non-trans-cardiac vectors, capture was also seen but at a much lower incidence and these vectors did not result in VF.

What this means is that if the barbs are carefully attached to the victims belt buckle and ankle (as commonly arranged for testing), they'll probably be fine. On the other hand, if the taser is aimed at the chest (duh?) and the barbs get across the area of the heart, then the taser will affect the operation of the heart in 'most' cases. Whether this is fatal then becomes a guessing game and a matter of statistics. But taser enough people and some will certainly die.


Ref: Valentino, D.J., R.J. Walter, A.J. Dennis, B. Margeta, F. Starr, K.K. Nagy, F. Bokhari, D.E. Wiley, K.T. Joseph, and R.R. Roberts. TASER® X26 discharges in swine: Cardiac rhythm capture is dependent on discharge vector. Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST), January 2008; Journal of Trauma 63:1427, 2007.

Happy New Year Taser-wanks. Welcome to 2008. This is the year you're going down.


UPDATE (late-2009):

TASER International (TASR) stock price during 2008. Interesting.

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