USC Study misses the entire fricken point

I've read through the 17-page summary [LINK] of the recent University of South Carolina study on the 'safety' of tasers and I'd like to congratulate the researchers for their ability to ignore the '800-lb gorilla' sitting in the room with them. Their summary report barely mentions the issue of the many taser-associated DEATHS. The entire study appears to be about injuries.

Geesus H. - what is the approximate ratio of importance between an average injury and a DEATH? Ten thousand to one? A million to one?

On this blog, I've barely mentioned injuries. If tasers only ever caused injuries to the subject, then it's very likely that I wouldn't even have bothered to start this blog.

And besides, Taser International (now) readily admits that tasers can cause a wide variety of injuries. It's the issue of the many poorly-explained taser-associated deaths that is the nub of THE main argument.

Putting out a "major" study about taser safety, and then dismissing the many hundreds of taser-associated deaths, and the obvious patterns visible at the large scale, as being so unimportant an issue that it can be dismissed with barely a mention is insulting to the families of those that have "died", and it's an affront to basic human values.

Let's sort out the FAR MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION of the taser-associated DEATHS before moving on to other secondary issues such as the relative rate of injuries.

This study is almost completely irrelevant.

And the essentially a hijacking of the word "safety" in the context of the much larger taser safety issue is playing into the hands of the manufacturer. They're probably overjoyed at this added muddling of the real issue.