Electroshock weapon
An electroshock weapon is an incapacitating weapon. It delivers an electric shock aimed at temporarily disrupting muscle functions and/or inflicting pain, usually without causing significant injury.
Many types of these devices exist. Stun guns, batons (or prods), cattle prods, shock collars, and belts administer an electric shock by direct contact, whereas Tasers fire projectiles that administer the shock through thin flexible wires. Long-range electroshock projectiles, which can be fired from ordinary shotguns and do not need the wires, have also been developed.
Though the two terms are often used interchangeably, stun guns are actually direct contact weapons that work mainly through pain compliance by affecting the sensory nervous system.[1] It can also cause some muscular disruption, but that generally requires 3–5 seconds of direct contact.[2] In comparison, a Taser is a long range weapon that fires barbed darts and incapacitates the target by disrupting voluntary muscular control through the motor nervous system.[2][3] However, some models of Taser blur this distinction as they are capable of delivering a "drive stun", a pain compliance technique involving placing the weapon in direct contact with the subject's body and discharging a shock without firing the probes. [4]
Legality[edit]
Argentina[edit]
In 2010, one court ruled against the use of five imported Taser devices by the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police, to comply with a claim from the Human Rights Observatorium, that states that Taser CEWs are considered an instrument of torture by NGOs and the Committee against Torture of the UN.[45]
Australia[edit]
Possession, ownership and use of a stun gun (including Taser CEWs) by civilians is considerably restricted, if not illegal in all States and Territories. The importation into Australia is restricted with permits being required.
Stun gun use in Australian law enforcement is as follows: