When using a stun gun there are many factors you have to think about
before actually using it on a person. Is this amount of force necessary?
Can I protect myself without the use of a stun gun? Could I possibly
call 911 and have law enforcement show up in time for them to handle
the situation? These are by no means all of the factors involved we
have just outlined a couple for you to get the right idea.
When carrying a stun gun in your purse, car or on your persons make
sure that it is in the OFF position and if equipped with a safety featured
make sure it is engaged. If you have not used your stun gun in more
then 6 months make sure you replace the batteries. Never – Never
– Never give or allow the use of a stun gun to a minor, you must
be at least 18 years of age in the USA to carry and or use a stun gun,
make sure you check local and state laws concerning the use of stun
guns. If and when you are required to use the stun gun, make sure that
you place the stun gun in the ON position and disengage the safety switch.
With your arm fully extended turn the stun gun on, “you will here
a crackling noise and see the electricity emulating from the end of
the stun gun. Now wherever you touch will be effected by the stun and
you will watch your attacker yell in pain and most likely fall to the
grown. This is your time to run or drive to a safe place and IMMIDATILY
call 911 or your local law enforcement number and report exactly what
happened and give a description of the suspect/actor
Defination of a Stun Gun: A weapon designed to disable
a victim temporarily by delivering a nonlethal high-voltage electric
shock.
On the old "Star Trek" series, Captain Kirk and his crew never
left the ship without their trusty phasers. One of the coolest things
about these weapons was the "stun" setting. Unless things
were completely out of control (as they frequently were), the Enterprise
crew always stunned their adversaries, rendering them temporarily unconscious,
rather than killing them.
The Body's Electrical System
We tend to think of electricity as a harmful force to our bodies. If
lightning strikes you or you stick your finger in an electrical outlet,
the current can maim or even kill you. But in smaller doses, electricity
is harmless. In fact, it is one of the most essential elements in your
body. You need electricity to do just about anything.
When you want to make a sandwich, for example, your brain sends electricity
down a nerve cell, toward the muscles in your arm.
The electrical signal tells the nerve cell to release a neurotransmitter,
a communication chemical, to the muscle cells. This tells the muscles
to contract or expand in just the right way to put your sandwich together.
When you pick up the sandwich, the sensitive nerve cells in your hand
send an electrical message to the brain, telling you what the sandwich
feels like. When you bite into it, your mouth sends signals to your
brain to tell you how it tastes.
Disrupting the System
Stun Gun and the basic idea of a stun gun is to disrupt this communication
system. Stun guns generate a high-voltage, low-amperage electrical charge.
In simple terms, this means that the charge has a lot of pressure behind
it, but not that much intensity. When you press the stun gun against
an attacker and hold the trigger, the charge passes into the attacker's
body. Since it has a fairly high voltage, the charge will pass through
heavy clothing and skin. But at around 3 milliamps, the charge is not
intense enough to damage the attacker's body unless it is applied for
extended periods of time.
It does dump a lot of confusing information into the attacker's nervous
system, however. This causes a couple of things to happen:
The charge combines with the electrical signals from the attacker's
brain. This is like running an outside current into a phone line: The
original signal is mixed in with random noise, making it very difficult
to decipher any messages. When these lines of communication go down,
the attacker has a very hard time telling his muscles to move, and he
may become confused and unbalanced. He is partially paralyzed, temporarily.
The current may be generated with a pulse frequency that mimics the
body's own electrical signals. In this case, the current will tell the
attacker's muscles to do a great deal of work in a short amount of time.
But the signal doesn't direct the work toward any particular movement.
The work doesn't do anything but deplete the attacker's energy reserves,
leaving him too weak to move (ideally).
At its most basic, this is all there is to incapacitating a person with
a stun gun -- you apply electricity to a person's muscles and nerves.
And since there are muscles and nerves all over the body, it doesn't
particularly matter where you hit an attacker.
Down for the Count!
Stun gun effectiveness varies depending on the particular gun model,
the attacker's body size and his determination. It also depends on how
long you keep the gun on the attacker.
If you use the gun for half a second, a painful jolt will startle the
attacker. If you zap him for one or two seconds, he should experience
muscle spasms and become dazed. And if you zap him for more than three
seconds, he will become unbalanced and disoriented and may lose muscle
control. Determined attackers with a certain physiology may keep coming
despite any shock.
Standard Stun Gun
Conventional stun guns have a fairly simple design. They are about the
size of a flashlight, and they work on ordinary 9-volt batteries.
The batteries supply electricity to a circuit consisting of various
electrical components. The circuitry includes multiple transformers,
components that boost the voltage in the circuit, typically to between
20,000 and 150,000 volts, and reduce the amperage. It also includes
a oscillator, a component that fluctuates current to produce a specific
pulse pattern of electricity. This current charges a capacitor. The
capacitor builds up a charge, and releases it to the electrodes, the
"business end" of the circuit.
The electrodes are simply two plates of conducting metal positioned
in the circuit with a gap between them. Since the electrodes are positioned
along the circuit, they have a high voltage difference between them.
If you fill this gap with a conductor (say, the attacker's body), the
electrical pulses will try to move from one electrode the other, dumping
electricity into the attacker's nervous system.
Cattle Prods
Cattle prods are similar to stun guns in design -- they apply an electrical
current across two electrodes -- but they serve a completely different
function. A stun gun uses an electrical charge to incapacitate someone,
while a cattle prod applies a charge to get a person or animal moving.
A cattle prod only causes pain, it does not significantly affect the
muscles and nervous system of the body.
These two devices differ mainly in voltage. The voltage in a stun gun
is high enough to dump electricity into the entire body. The lower voltage
in a cattle prod only shocks someone at the point of contact.
These days, most stun gun models have two pairs of electrodes: an inner
pair and an outer pair. The outer pair, the charge electrodes, are spaced
a good distance apart, so current will only flow if you insert an outside
conductor. If the current can't flow across these electrodes, it flows
to the inner pair, the test electrodes. These electrodes are close enough
that the electric current can leap between them. The moving current
ionizes the air particles in the gap, producing a visible spark and
crackling noise. This display is mainly intended as a deterrent: An
attacker sees and hears the electricity and knows you're armed. Some
stun guns rely on the element of surprise, rather than warning. These
models are disguised as umbrellas, flashlights or other everyday objects
so you can catch an attacker off guard.
These sorts of stun guns are popular with ordinary citizens because
they are small, easy-to-use, and legal in most areas. Police and military
forces, on the other hand, typically use more complex stun gun designs,
with larger ranges. In the next couple of sections, we'll look at some
of these sophisticated stun guns.
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