The history of the creation of the taser. I don’t know how anyone, but I don’t really like American “life” films, where good people sometimes have “unkind faces”, and bad people, on the contrary, are “handsome”. I do not like the fact that for one white actor there is necessarily a Negro actor, and if the supporting actor is white, then the hero is a Negro, and vice versa. And their slum speech simply annoys - all these "bro", "dudes" … I have heard enough of "theirs", "with him", "noble", "read", let alone hear it performed by representatives of another ethnic accessories and do not want to. Whether it's the good old movie "Gone with the Wind" or "River without Return", or the 50s series about the lawyer Perry Mason. Everything is there as … well, let's just say the way I like it. But in one of these “realistic” films I heard the phrase: “Don't tay me, bro!”, And was addressed by a black slum dweller to a white policeman. "The Canadian wolf is your brother!" - I would answer him in the place of this cop, but in the era of universal tolerance, this, of course, did not happen. I didn't like what happened next either, but I liked the weapon this cop was holding in his hands - the taser. And of course, many people know everything about him today. But … maybe try to tell about it again, based on information from an American manufacturer of tasers?
And hand over peas too?
And it so happened that in 1969, former NASA employee Jack Cover thought that, probably, you should not threaten a person with a firearm, whom you need to stop during arrest. But he will not stop, and then what to do? Shoot him? And if his fault is small - then how? In a word, he wanted to create a weapon that would be sufficiently portable, and at the same time could immobilize a person without causing serious injury to him. He worked for five years and in 1974 he made such a device and not only made, but also managed to get a patent for it. Cover gave the new weapon the name Taser (in honor of the hero of his favorite science fiction novel, Thomas Swift, who shot there with an electric rifle). But the patent seemed to him not enough. And he started producing his tasers.
True, he immediately had to face legal trickery. Since in his model, cartridges with electrodes were powered by gunpowder, the government equated the taser with a firearm, the production of which even in the States is not at all easy. However, Cover turned out to be a stubborn person and came up with a replacement for gunpowder. The new sample has become pneumatic! Moreover, in 1994, a device was added to the taser with which it was possible to identify its place of application. The solution was simple, but effective: at the moment of the shot, marked confetti were also thrown out along with the ejected electrodes, so that the police would have no difficulty in identifying the shooter.
In 1999, a model went on sale, which, in addition to electric shock, also caused neuromuscular contractions in the affected person. In the future, the improvement of tasers followed the path of increasing their ammunition, and so no other innovations appeared on them.
He shot once, he shot two …
The taser is designed in such a way that with each shot at the enemy, from 1 to 3 cartridges can be fired. The cartridge itself consists of a pair of tiny arrow-shaped elements resembling harpoons, to which are attached thin copper wires leading to the actual taser. Shots occur, as in any pneumatic weapon: from a supply of compressed gas (in this case, it is nitrogen).
Arrow-shaped elements bite into the enemy's clothing so that they are very difficult to tear off, and an electric current flows through the wires stretching from them. The supply of copper wire is sufficient for a distance of 11 meters. In urban conditions, this is not enough. The range could be increased, but then their "destructive power" will also increase, so the degree of damage will be greater. That is why they do not strive to increase it!
The striking factor in the action of the taser is the electric charge, which is transmitted to the target just along these wires and sends an impulse to the brain. Well, after that, the latter, in turn, sends impulses to all the muscles on the opponent's body, they cause their nervous contraction, which instantly immobilizes him.
Today, tasers are actively used by the American police to arrest violators of public order. A couple of shots from a taser and the strongest and most violent African American becomes submissive and stops resisting. All of this is positive and much more acceptable in the arrest of offenders and criminals than shooting at them from 45-caliber Colts. However, despite this, a number of special organizations are trying to limit or even completely exclude the use of tasers.
But there are also those who oppose …
For example, in the USA there is an organization that collects all cases of excessive and dangerous for people exposure to tasers on victims. More than 34,000 such examples have already been collected. It is planned to apply to the Supreme Court with all this in order to achieve a complete ban on such weapons. Moreover, it is very difficult to prove the redundancy of their impact, because, of course, a person exposed to a taser evaluates it extremely subjectively. Many countries, such as Argentina, Hong Kong and Sweden, do not recognize the taser at all, and consider it a kind of firearm. Tasers in them are prohibited and cannot be used against citizens under any guise.
A similar ban on the purchase of tasers, as well as on their import and use, exists in Russia. Moreover, this ban has existed since 1996.
First steps on the market
It is clear that it would have been difficult for Cover himself to launch the production of tasers on his own, but in 1991 two Americans, Rick and Tom Smith, were found who created AIR TASER, Inc., and had already jointly developed a compressed nitrogen device. After near bankruptcy and the sale of other products such as the "Auto Taser" anti-theft system for cars, the company, later renamed TASER International, finally unveiled its TASER M26 in 1999. With a $ 6.8 million deficit in 2001, TASER International was able to increase sales through an original marketing ploy: it offered to pay police officers to train others on how to use their products. This approach proved to be effective, and the deficit turned into a surplus, reaching $ 24.5 million in net sales by 2003 and almost $ 68 million in 2004. Already in May 2001, the company began issuing shares and participating in trading on the stock exchange under the TASR stock symbol. Competitors also got it …
Patent suits by TASER International have resulted in the closure of rival firms such as Stinger Systems and its successor company, Karbon Arms. Interestingly, despite all the criticism and a decent number of deaths associated with the use of tasers, the company managed to maintain its dominant position in the market and maintains it to this day.
Shift towards cameras
However, the market is the market. Its laws are harsh and something new needs to be released all the time. In 2005, TASER International launched the production of additional accessories for their tasers, and in particular, a camera that activates after removing it from the safety lock, and removes everything that happens in front of the shooter. By October 2010, at least 45,000 TASER cameras had been sold, which became a kind of record.
TASER CEO Rick Smith attributes this success to providing "revolutionary collection, preservation and digital evidence for law enforcement." In 2009, after attorney Daniel Shue exonerated Fort Smith Police Officer Brandon Davis based on the company's camera recordings, and Davis and Shue themselves put out their reviews of the new product in the press, camera production took off. In addition, these cameras could be attached to anything, which for the police, who were very often accused of excessive use of violence, turned out to be truly a lifesaver.
The market determines the value of the product
In April 2013, the Rialto Police Department released the results of a 12-month study on the use of the new Axon Flex cameras. The study showed that complaints filed against officers fell by 88%, and the number of cases of use of force by officers fell by almost 60%.
TASER opened an office in Seattle in 2013, and an international office in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in May 2014. In June 2015, the company announced the creation of a new Seattle division known as Axon, which will cover the company's technology businesses, including the production of television cameras. On April 5, 2017, TASER announced its renaming to Axon in response to the expansion of its business. And in May 2018, Axon bought another competitor, VieVu, for $ 4.6 million in cash and $ 2.5 million for common stock … So the taser business lives on and thrives! The company's brochure says that their "smart equipment" saved the lives of 140,000 people. Then that's really great. Even if this figure is doubled!
