Possible Laws Limiting the Use of Taser Guns to People Below a Certain Age

It may not be out of the question that the audio file of the ubiquitous "Don't Taze Me, Bro!" has been mixed into more continual audio loops by now than any other phrase in existence. Don't be surprised if you see it mentioned as one of the Top Ten pop culture phrases of this decade once we get around to accruing more of those pop culture quotes we hear constantly played or uttered on news shows so we never forget. Yet that tase phrase might define a lot in the direction law enforcement went toward the end of this decade and likely into the next. When the taser gun first became available to various U.S. police departments in the early 90's, the intention was to use it in place of having to shoot an uncooperative person being questioned or arrested.

But it only took one decade to evolve into a quandary of pondering whether society has just become exponentially uncooperative or if the police are becoming too obsessed about using a taser gun, bro.

There isn't any mistake in noticing how police are edgier in recent years, particularly with so many cases in various states of police shootings that turn into quasi accusations of murder. Despite polls always trying to give the impression that crime is down in certain prominent cities, the intensity level of crime is unquestionably edgier. With increasing drug problems (usually meth addicts), a declining sense of ethics and intense stress from an economic downturn, police were starting to keep one hand on their gun holster when having to question someone or pulling someone over for a traffic violation. Once that became a dangerous prospect, it eventually turned to keeping the taser gun at the ready.

It shouldn't surprise anybody why taser guns have become the go-to weapon of law enforcement to subdue someone without killing them. Only, there was never a test to see how a taser gun would work on an older person--for obvious reasons of an arrest warrant being ordered if someone even thought of testing such a scenario. The pervading thought has always been that older people wouldn't ever have to be tased for the simple reason they're more responsible citizens who gripe to other people how society has gone into the loo. And that idea seems to have held right on through the last two decades of taser gun use. Evidence is everywhere that taser guns have mostly been used on those well under 60 if not even under 20.

Then everything happened in a state that purports to have everything bigger than anywhere else. Texas may be a breeding ground of famous people in politics and music, but it also managed to be ground central where the first reported 72-year-old woman was taken down by a policeman's taser gun. Not surprisingly, the initial public vitriol went against the policeman, despite widely seen video evidence that the woman was acting belligerently and supposedly couldn't be controlled any other way. So far, there hasn't been any outcry from AARP or other senior advocacy groups who think those over retirement age should be immune from being tased.

That doesn't mean we won't start a new contentious argument about taser guns being torture as this country did when those under 18 became recipients of this weapon.
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With everybody from the ACLU to the U.N. designating the more powerful taser gun as a weapon of torture in recent years, don't be surprised to see some major advocates starting up new recommendations to re-think the use of tasing on certain age groups. Even though the 72-year-old woman survived her tasing in Texas, (incidentally, watch for t-shirts on Texan retirees saying "Everything's shocking here") there's still the underlying feeling that using this weapon on an elderly person is a form of cruelty. Based on immediate responses I saw on Twitter hours after it broke in the media, the immediate thought of tasing a great-grandmother was one of throwing all blame toward the police for being overzealous.

We may see that feeling sustain once anti-tasing groups asking for change bring up the statistic that close to 150 people have been killed using taser guns in both America and Canada within the last ten years. The ACLU has never backed up those numbers since making the claim, yet there isn't a doubt that some unofficial death counts of much younger people have mounted after tasing incidents, usually followed by doubts the deaths were directly related to the incident. It's these doubts about the weapon's safety that's made the weapon illegal in seven U.S. states and with certain restrictions in the states that make them legal. Also, Canada banning the use of them shows how the U.S. and our friends north of the border are sometimes miles apart in philosophy as well as in how we pronounce our vowels.

Amid all the attempts to bring down the use of taser guns by civil liberty organizations, the creator of the current taser guns on the market, Taser International, keep on managing to convince the American public that they're much better than other alternatives in police fighting crime. All it takes, though, is the death of an older person being tased to put Taser International into a deeper quandary than they've ever managed to be in. As of this writing, there hasn't been a call yet in Texas or any other state to change tasing laws to reflect only using them on those below a certain age. Because those over 65 are rightfully protected with more rights than any other age group on the planet, you can be sure something will be done about this once it happens to another older person if not before.

The counterarguments will naturally be that when you're acting uncooperative or violent toward a police officer, it doesn't matter if you're 100 years old. When it comes to torturing someone, however, America goes by visuals and how we view human life. An older woman who happens to be a great-grandmother being tased just goes down wrong with much of the public who happen to see it on a continuous loop on Youtube or Yin & Yang cable news for weeks on end. We immediately blanket that image with other torture in recent news, such as waterboarding and immediately perpetuate the idea that inflicting pain isn't humane for the most unruly individuals.

It probably wouldn't hurt us if we have state laws limiting taser gun use to those below a certain age. Unless society goes completely off the edge, most elderly people won't be in this predicament since many were raised in a better time when cooperating and respecting the law was a part of life. We're also a nation who all too frequently looks at a belligerent or uncooperative elderly person as an example of senility or onslaught of Alzheimer's--hence meaning the use of verbal admonishments rather than using blunt force. Should we keep it that way, it'll just move us ever more forward in the new drive to look more compassionate in the rest of the world's eyes.

Sources:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7799290&page=1

http://www.aclu.org/police/abuse/19977prs20051006.html