The History Of Taser Guns

By Author: Rich Fan
Total Articles: 11
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Tasers have come a long way since the eary prototypes. The 1st generation of projectile firing stun guns was created in the late 1960's by a NASA scientist named Jack Cover. He created a small hand held cylindrical device that used gunpowder to explosively propel 2 projectiles about 5 yards. These projectiles looked like heavy straightened fish hooks connected to thin insulated wires shot out of a flashlight. The entire unit was dubbed the Taser TF-76. This prototype, and the next few that followed, were simply used to force obedience by delivering an electrical charge large enough to achieve pain compliance. So Jack Cover started a company to manufacture these devices, and it is rumored that that T.A.S.E.R. was an acronym inspired from the childhood novel Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle. This weapon with it's cylindrical shape was not created to resemble a firearm, but because it was powered by an explosive gunpowder charge, it had to be classified by the feds. After much discussion, the ATF sadly categorized it in with sawed-off shotguns as a Title 2 weapon available only to law enforcement. This severly limited ...
... the market and the first few models and production quickly died out.

Then in 1993, two Arizona brothers set out to make a new type of stun gun, that would be not be illegal to carry. They called Jack Cover who had an idea, to use compressed air or nitrogen deploy the darts. They quickly brought in Jack Cover as an employee, and began to design the next generation of Taser. The new design was called the Air Taser 34000 and was basically similar to the old TF-76, with 2 new important features: it used compressed air to launch the projectiles, and when deployed, it dispersed Anti Felon ID Tags for easy tracing by law enforcement agencies.

As word spread though the law enforcement community, the Air Taser Company received an invitation by the Czech police to provide a live demonstration in Prague. The presentation turned out to be a total disappointment as repeated police officers were able fight through the pain and take down the person shooting the Air Taser 34000. Upon returning home defeated and embarrassed, the team began to develop a more effective technology. They realized that the stun gun effects of the model 34000 did not neuromuscularly incapacitate an assailant, especially if that assailant was strong of mind. They worked on a new electrical waveform, that would deliver uncontrollable muscle spasms, to immediately drop any aggressor, no matter how determined or violent. The Advanced Taser M18 and M26 models were created. Eventually, thousands of worldwide law enforcement agencies readily accepted this new technology,implementing the non-lethal defense as an alternative to using a gun. In addition to the AFID confetti, a computer dataport was added to track usage in the field. The X26 debuted in 2003 and was the first Taser model to feature the patented shaped pulse technology. The X26 was made 60% smaller and lighter than the M26, but packed a greater wallop! As popularity of the Taser grew, demand for more non-gun appearing consumer friendly models led to the development of the Taser C2 which looks more like a shaver than a weapon. Recent developments in Taser technology include a wireless missile that can be shotgun deployed, up to 100 feet away!!