Please note: I’m not going to do it myself; it’s for something I’m writing. Guy tries to break up a fight shortly before the cops show up, and gets tazed on the assumption that he’s the instigator.
Character is about 40, slightly overweight and a smoker. What would his physical reaction be, immediately and afterwards? Would an ER visit be in order? Would it affect his heart rate? (I’m hoping to include this exchange: “I coulda had a f------ heart attack!” — “If you’re worried about heart attacks, why don’t you quit smoking?” — " :smack: ") Also, where would the cop apply the taser — the ribcage?
Thanks in advance.
Immediate and intense pain coupled with the involuntary contraction of all your muscles. It’s like those physical therapy machines but much more powerful. There will be a definite and noticeable increase in heart rate. This is cause by the surprise and panic one experiences, as well as the fact that all the muscles are in serious hardcore contraction. With increased muscle use, comes increased demand for oxygen. So the breathing and heartrate right after being tasered are higher than before being tasered. I think most of the dramatic increase, though, and just from the startling nature of the experience.
All the pain and discomfort and increased respiration doesn’t last long, and by 15 minutes or so, one should be completely recovered as if nothing ever happened. But this varies by person – like anything else.
A trip to the hospital is normally not needed. Some departments require that EMTs come and remove the barbs though.
The Taser should be aimed at centermass or at the legs.
If I had a choice to be either Tasered, OCed, or CSed… I’d choose the Taser. The other two take way too long to recover from.
They tasered some trucker on the “Bubba the Love Sponge” show last night; I missed the reason why they were doing this.
The poor guy convulsed, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out briefly. He weighed 250 lbs, but was in decent shape. When he came to, his main complaint was that he felt extremely drained.
Do you lose bladder/bowel control?
Second, OCed or CSed?
If you’re asking what those mean, as opposed to which he’d prefer, it’s oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray, and 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile “CS” tear-gas.
My cousin is a police officer and he got to experience being zapped with a taser as part of his training. He said that it felt like being hit all over at once; once the juice was turned off the sensation stopped right away.
Thanks to the miracle of the internet, you can see for yourself.
google video of tasers and stunguns in action
There was also an episode of jackass where one of them was peppersprayed, tasered and I think hit with a stungun. He rated the pepperspray as being by far the worst, IIRC.
In the more advanced knife-fighting training groups I’ve played with, we’d sometimes use stun-guns as “simulated knives”. Training just with wooden or dulled blades sometimes makes people too complacent about taking damage, so training with live stun-guns was used to make people “respect the blade” and keep their evasion skills sharp (no pun intended).
As I understand it, a taser actually fires darts into the target, and then current is delivered through wires. A stun-gun has electrodes on it which you press into the target’s body.
Getting hit with a stunner on an extremity causes that extremity to seize up (sort of a massive jerking and “charley horse” effect). It hurts, but for a healthy 40yo M has no serious danger requiring an ER visit. Getting hit in the torso is worse, but especially dangerous if the person has any pre-existing conditions that incline them to cardiac arrhythmias.
CS is more annoying than disabling. I’ve never been OC’ed, but I hear it’s worse.
G