Frequently Asked Taser Questions: How Electric Tasers Affect the Human Body (2024)

Are you thinking of investing in a Taser for your personal safety or the protection of your family? You may have heard about Tasers, how powerful they are, and what they can do — but do you really know what happens when someone is hit by an electric Taser? From short-term effects to possible long-term consequences – knowing what you’re dealing with can make all the difference when assessing the risks vs rewards associated with using a security Taser.

How Do Tasers Work?

Tasers are handheld devices that deliver short electrical pulses. Pulling the trigger releases two electrode wires that attach to the body and charges electric pulses into the muscles, causing muscle contractions. Generally, an electric taser will deliver 19 short pulses over 5 seconds with an average current of 2 milliamps. As one of the best defense products, tasers will incapacitate someone without causing them permanent harm.

What Does a Taser Do To the Body?

One of the biggest questions people have about Tasers is how they affect your body. While security tasers are a nonlethal solution that many police and security guards rely on, people are worried about the risk of injury and the lasting effects. So how damaging is a Taser? Can a Taser kill a human? Studies show that those concerns are unfounded. Serious injuries from an electric taser happen less than one percent of the time. With that being said, police officers, medical personnel, and any other bystanders should carefully assess someone recently tased to make sure there are no injuries.

Does a Taser penetrate the skin?

Yes, when the electric wires fire they penetrate the skin. This is where the most common Taser injuries result from. The metal probes can cause minor puncture wounds or superficial burns, especially if the barbs aren’t pulled off immediately afterward. Scrapes are also common if the person who was tased convulsed uncontrollably and scratched themselves.

What does a Taser do to muscles?

When an electric taser hits someone, it sends a signal to the muscles that cause a state known as neuromuscular incapacitation. This state causes your muscles to flex, making it difficult to make any voluntary movements. This quick incapacitating power is one of the main reasons electric Tasers are an effective defense product. Although muscle contractions can be very painful, they don’t have any lasting impacts.

Does a Taser affect the heart?

The electrical current of a security Taser is 50,000 volts, which is too low and too short to affect the heart’s muscles or cause unusual heart rhythms, even for those who have heart issues. Will a Taser stop a pacemaker? Many people fear that Tasers could damage medical equipment such as pacemakers and implantable defibrillators, but electric stun gun studies have confirmed those are only rumors.

How does a Taser affect the brain?

It is possible for there to be some complications to the nervous system including loss of consciousness, falling leading to head injury, or confusion, especially if they are shot at a short distance or in the head. Out of these possibilities, the most likely to occur is confusion. Being tased is a disorientating experience, so it’s very possible someone who’s been recently tased may have trouble remembering short-term memories and processing information.

Can a Taser cause paralysis? Yes, but the paralysis is only temporary, lasting for about five seconds or the amount of time the taser is actively stunning someone. Can being tased trigger a seizure? The likelihood of a Taser causing a seizure is very slim but it is possible.

How long will a Taser incapacitate someone?

An electric Taser can incapacitate someone for as long as its electrical cycle lasts, typically around 5 seconds. People usually recover immediately and feel no residual side effects, but it’s important to keep an eye on them afterward to make sure that there was no injury for at least 20 minutes afterward.

What does being tased feel like?

The most common way being tased has been described is that it feels like a Charlie horse cramp. Everyone experiences it in different ways though, some more severe than others.

Find Your Self-Defense Products with the Home Security Superstore

At Home Security Superstore, you can find a variety of security taser products, from electric taser for home protection to disguised stun guns like our cell phone tasers or stun gun flashlights, as well as other items such as pepper spray and stun guns. Browse for an electric taser or order one of our other defense products now from the Home Security Superstore!

Frequently Asked Taser Questions: How Electric Tasers Affect the Human Body (2024)

FAQs

Frequently Asked Taser Questions: How Electric Tasers Affect the Human Body? ›

A Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation device emits an electrical waveform that overpowers the normal electrical signals within the subject's nervous system and causes involuntary muscle contraction and temporary loss of motor control. Exposure to this waveform results in temporary electro-muscular incapacitation.

What are the effects of a taser on the body? ›

Tasers, AKA stun guns, cause your muscles to seize up, which can make them sore for days after. Puncture wounds, cuts, and bruises are common injuries following a shock from a Taser or stun gun. In rare cases, Tasers can damage kidney function or cause testicular torsion.

What are the side effects of the electric taser? ›

The electric shock causes muscle contractions, potentially resulting in traumatic falls, or fractures. Cardiac problems occur only in exceptional cases; risk factors include long duration of the power surge, short distance from the darts to the heart and underlying heart problems.

What does a taser do to muscles? ›

TASER energy weapons use electrical current to temporarily incapacitate subjects by inducing neuromuscular incapacitation, or NMI. NMI is simple. Basically, TASER energy weapons send a signal to your muscles telling them to flex.

How long do taser effects last? ›

An electric Taser can incapacitate someone for as long as its electrical cycle lasts, typically around 5 seconds. People usually recover immediately and feel no residual side effects, but it's important to keep an eye on them afterward to make sure that there was no injury for at least 20 minutes afterward.

How do you feel after being tased? ›

The electrical shock can cause temporary physical discomfort, disorientation, confusion, and emotional effects such as fear, vulnerability, and humiliation [3].

Why don't tasers work on everyone? ›

It's not always immediately clear why a Taser wasn't effective. Some people have tugged the metal probes from their bodies, rendering the device useless. Mental illness or drug use can also influence how a person reacts to the shock. Sometimes the fault lies with officers who don't use them properly.

What are the 7 effects of Taser exposure? ›

CEW use, anticipation of use, or response to use can cause startle, panic, fear, anger, rage, temporary discomfort, pain, or stress which may be injurious or fatal to some people.

Can a Taser affect your heart? ›

The TASER Debate. Even though many studies and reports have been published regarding the TASER's safety, there is still no consensus. Some studies suggest that the TASER can directly pace the heart into ventricular fibrillation (VF). In North America, over 440 deaths have been reported immediately following TASER use.

What are the cons of tasers? ›

Use may result in secondary injuries such as minor skin irritation, blistering, bruising and lacerations. More substantial injuries may occur if a person falls onto hard surfaces. It has been reported that in some overseas law enforcement agencies there is an over-reliance on the use of Tasers (see RCMP Report).

Why do tasers affect the nervous system? ›

The electrical weapon, according to TASER International, overrides the brain's control of the body by speaking the same 'language' as nerves. It achieves this by emitting electric pulses that match those used by neurons, which transfer information between the brain and muscles.

Do tasers cause muscle spasms? ›

The gun is sometimes known as a Taser or Phazzer. The gun shoots barbed darts. The darts are connected to the gun by long wires. The electricity sent along the wires to the darts causes muscle spasms.

Can tasers cause seizures? ›

Complications related to the brain or nervous system are rare, but do occur, including loss of consciousness, seizures, abnormal brain activity and confusion.

Can tasers cause long term effects? ›

The effects of a taser usually wear off in minutes without harmful, long-term consequences, but the weapons have been known to trigger severe heart complications — even in otherwise healthy people.

Can a Taser cause long term damage? ›

A taser can do significant and even permanent damage. Although rare, the use of a taser can cause abnormal heart rhythms and unusual brain activity.

How does a Taser incapacitate someone? ›

A2. A Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation device emits an electrical waveform that overpowers the normal electrical signals within the subject's nervous system and causes involuntary muscle contraction and temporary loss of motor control.

Can a taser cause permanent damage? ›

Loss of consciousness, abnormal brain function, and even seizures can result from being hit by a taser. In addition, a victim may suffer permanent damage from falling. Also, a taser can cause permanent damage in the form of scarring at the place of impact of the taser.

How many volts does a taser emit? ›

The TASER energy weapons use a peak voltage of 50,000 volts so that the electrons can be propelled across a 2 inch air gap. The high voltage causes electrons to “jump the gap,” a process that “ionizes” the air gap in what appears to the user as a bright arc.

Can Tasers cause seizures? ›

This report shows that a taser shot to the head may result in a brain-specific complication such as generalized tonic-clonic seizure. It also suggests that seizure should be considered an adverse event related to taser use.

What do stun gun marks look like? ›

The skin lesions that are often seen are hypopigmented circular macules, measuring approximately 0.5 cm in diameter. They may be raised slightly and erythematous if inflicted recently Most characteristic of stun gun assault is pairing of lesions approximately 5 cm apart.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Nathanael Baumbach

Last Updated:

Views: 6152

Rating: 4.4 / 5 (75 voted)

Reviews: 90% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Nathanael Baumbach

Birthday: 1998-12-02

Address: Apt. 829 751 Glover View, West Orlando, IN 22436

Phone: +901025288581

Job: Internal IT Coordinator

Hobby: Gunsmithing, Motor sports, Flying, Skiing, Hooping, Lego building, Ice skating

Introduction: My name is Nathanael Baumbach, I am a fantastic, nice, victorious, brave, healthy, cute, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.