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Stun Gun Aftereffects

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MysteryAdmin:
Topic: Aftereffects of Stun guns (2 of 4), Read 46 times
Conf: Police Procedures
From: Bob Mueller cmhbob@earthlink.net
Date: Saturday, June 08, 2002 02:20 PM

The department I worked for issued the Nova XR5000 stun gun, which I qualified to carry. The Nova is a fairly typical unit, about 7 inches long by about 2 wide, and about an inch thick. It has 4 probes at the top of the unit, which has a U shape to it. 2 probes point up, and 2 point in to the middle of the U. The Nova was activated with spring-loaded rocker switch, so that if you dropped it or whatever, and your finger came off the trigger/switch, the unit shut off. I haven't looked at any units in a long time, but I would think that feature would be common, making the idea of a prolonged self-shock somewhat less plausible. I just can't conceive of a way someone would clench up that tightly under a stun gun shock such that they would not be able to let go of the trigger/switch. In fact, one use of the stun gun was to make someone let go of you if they had grabbed hold.

As far as effects, well, part of the training involved being on the receiving end of many discharges. I'd guess I took a couple of dozen zaps over a 4-hour exercise. Every one of those zaps left some sort of mark on me. Some were a pair of red dots, and some were really nasty first-degree burns. It all depended on how long I got zapped and what clothing might have been in the way. Less clothing meant more marking.

Part of the training also involved being on the receiving end of a full take-down charge. We had to "attack" another officer so that they could deploy the stun gun and zap us down, ultimately hand-cuffing us. When it was my turn, I decided to see how long I could go before giving up. The other officer ended up zapping me probably three times for 3-5 seconds each time, and it took him a couple of minutes to get the cuffs on me. I just decided it wasn't going to affect me, so I was able to drive through the pain. I suspect a person intent on foul play will be similarly focused on his or her mission, and thus less likely to be distracted.

As far as long-term after-effects, I had none after the training session that were directly related to the stun gun.

Here's some reading material I found:
The Relative Immunity Of The Skin And Cardiovascular System To The Direct Effects Of High Voltage - High Frequency Component Electrical Pulses
http://www.paktronix.com/stun93.html

Nova's web site:
http://www.nova-usa.com/erd.html (with pictures)

--
Bob Mueller

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