# What do Tasers do to a person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170 "2010-10-05T20:00:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/1 "2010-10-05T20:00:02Z")
My understanding is that a Taser works by sending an electrical pulse to the body that temporarily incapacitates a person by overloading their muscles, causing them to contract, and thereby the person collapse. The effect is transitory, i.e. basically while being shocked. Once it releases, it is essentially like you have been exerting your muscles manually, and though you may be tired, you are able to move again normally. It does not make one temporarily limp for an extended time, or sedate/knock out the person at all. Am I correct in this? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/2 "2010-10-05T20:11:17Z")
I tasered my cousin years ago and the instant I stopped he almost punched me in the face. I also had a good laugh when he tasered himself and had to knock his hand against a chair in order to release his own grip. Good times. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/3 "2010-10-05T20:12:38Z")
My cousin is a police officer and he volunteered to be tased. He said it felt like being “punched all over my body at once” however once the current was off he felt fine. I’ll take that with a slight grain of salt since he’s in better shape and probably has a higher pain tolerance than many people, but he didn’t describe it as being painful and there were no noticeable effects afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/4 "2010-10-05T20:13:15Z")
More or less, yes, as far as immediate effects (some claim there can be longer term effects, such as memory loss). You can be tasered and feel pretty much fine as soon as the juice is turned off, or even get back up to fight. Most people I know who have been both tasered and pepper sprayed in training prefer the taser. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/5 "2010-10-06T00:03:26Z")
Apparently they cause incontinence… [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvFhKybnlQY) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/6 "2010-10-06T01:13:02Z")
> [@Valgard](#): > > My cousin is a police officer and he volunteered to be tased. He said it felt like being “punched all over my body at once” however once the current was off he felt fine. I’ll take that with a slight grain of salt since he’s in better shape and probably has a higher pain tolerance than many people, but he didn’t describe it as being painful and there were no noticeable effects afterwards. That makes no sense. If it feels like being punched all over one’s body, that by definition is pain. And I still don’t see why people are so obsessed with how it feels afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/7 "2010-10-06T01:51:13Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And I still don’t see why people are so obsessed with how it feels afterward. Because “how it feels afterward” is part of the factual question posed by the GQ OP being answered. According to a study done by UCSD Medical Center: > [@](#): > > Vilke monitored the reactions of 32 healthy volunteers from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department who agreed to receive a single, five-second exposure from a Taser X26, the model reportedly used by more than 30 percent of police agencies in the United States. The standard issue law enforcement Taser is set to administer an electric shock in five-second intervals. > > Study coordinators measured cardiovascular and blood parameters before the exposure and for one hour after the exposure. Blood pressure and heart rate as well as calcium, sodium, potassium, bicarbonate and lactate levels, and blood pH were measured. Systolic blood pressure decreased after the Taser, likely due to a heightened anxiety before the test. Other measures changed slightly, but there were no clinically significant or lasting changes in the subjects. ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/8 "2010-10-06T04:18:51Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > > [@Valgard](#): > > > > My cousin is a police officer and he volunteered to be tased. He said it felt like being “punched all over my body at once” however once the current was off he felt fine. I’ll take that with a slight grain of salt since he’s in better shape and probably has a higher pain tolerance than many people, but he didn’t describe it as being painful and there were no noticeable effects afterwards. > > That makes no sense. If it feels like being punched all over one’s body, that by definition is pain. > > And I still don’t see why people are so obsessed with how it feels afterward. Getting punched doesn’t necessarily hurt. If the guy said it wasn’t painful, it wasn’t painful to him. As far as his description of the sensation goes, I imagine the sensation was exactly like receiving a rapid series of high-voltage electric shocks, but that somewhat lacks descriptive power to those who haven’t experienced it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/9 "2010-10-06T19:24:24Z")
And every once in a while it kills. Sure it won’t hurt a healthy person (AFAIK), but do the cops stop to ask if someone has a heart condition before zapping? A Pole was cop-murdered in the Vancouver airport. After they said he threatened them with a stapler (a deadly stapler, one must assume) and it turned out he didn’t understand enough English to follow their orders. Zap, zap, you’re dead. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/10 "2010-10-06T21:23:05Z")
**BigT** said: > [@](#): > > That makes no sense. If it feels like being punched all over one’s body, that by definition is pain. “Being punched” is not a very clear description. Being punched consists of an impact. If hard enough, of course it hurts, but a lighter “punch” applies pressure to the impact site without being especially painful. It can feel good in certain circumstances (used for massage of sore muscles, for instance). > [@](#): > > And I still don’t see why people are so obsessed with how it feels afterward. In general, as part of trying to understand the ramifications of using taser as opposed to other tools of defense/ control. Think of the after effects of being shot by a .45. They include lots of pain, big holes in the body, blood loss, permanent tissue damage, and potentially death if not treated rapidly. Now contrast with the after effects of Taser: except in unusual cases, return to normalcy, perhaps some memory issues for some people. That’s pretty significant. Now it is important to note there are cases of death, and what contributes to death, and the likelihood/probability of those situations occurring on any individual. That helps determine the cost/benefit analysis of using a Taser over, say, a .45 or a shotgun or pepper spray or a big, vicious dog. The person using the Taser and the reason for using it also are important considerations for cost/benefit, but that’s beyond the scope of my question. My question is inspired by the movie/TV industries new use of Tasers as the go to tranquilizer. I’ve now seen numerous times on TV the bad guy hitting the good guy with a Taser to cause the good guy to pass out so they can carry them off, probably take them somewhere in a way they won’t know where they have gone. What used to be done by a hanky and chloroform or a needle to the neck or whatever has been replaced by a Taser. This really irks me, so I wished to confirm my understanding that Tasers do not cause instantaneous unconsciousness (at least in most cases). I’ve heard too many cases of the person being Tased being tased multiple times because they were “resisting” or not complying with the officer’s instructions to lie down and surrender. If Tasers worked the way TV shows, this would almost never be the case. I know, don’t take what happens on TV for reality. I’m complaining not because I believe TV, but because it kills the plausibility of the story. When Nikita is grabbed in the Chinese customs office and they zap her in the neck so she goes limp and they can haul her off to be questioned/executed by the bad head honcho, it annoys me because a single Taser would not do that. When Fiona Glenanne is trying to kidnap some thug but he resists and she ends up zapping both of them to get him, and they both pass out, it annoys my sense of suspension of disbelief. When the White Collar guy is nabbed and stuffed into a van and carted off to confirm that the hostage girl is alive, it ruins the flow of the story that the way they ensure he doesn’t know where she is is by using a Taser, instead of, say, a blindfold. It’s worse than the whole “bash them on the back of the head to knock them out” meme, at least that might really knock them out - and give them a life threatening concussion or permanent brain damage, but yes it can knock them out. **ivn1188** said: > [@](#): > > Getting punched doesn’t necessarily hurt. If the guy said it wasn’t painful, it wasn’t painful to him. Technically, he described it as being punched all over, which **Valgard** assumes means something other than “it hurts like a son of a bitch”. I have not been tased, but have read online reports from law enforcement officers who claim it doesn’t hurt. Of course, they have incentive to minimize the description of pain involved. > [@](#): > > As far as his description of the sensation goes, I imagine the sensation was exactly like receiving a rapid series of high-voltage electric shocks, but that somewhat lacks descriptive power to those who haven’t experienced it. The couple times I’ve received high-voltage shocks, they hurt like a son of a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/11 "2010-10-07T13:19:50Z")
Here in NJ Tasers are still not used by the police thanks to the politicians who came up with a policy on their use that was so unrealistic as to make them unusable except in the rarest of circumstances. For one thing, use for “pain compliance” is prohibited. WTF? That’s why they work! Impact weapons, pepper spray, punches, dog bites etc. all work because they hurt and people tend to stop doing something that leads to pain. Hence, compliance through the application of pain. As far as how it feels afterwards, everyone I know who has been tased says they would much rather suffer the brief shock than deal with the discomfort of pepper spray that can go on for 30-45 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-tasers-do-to-a-person/556170/12 "2010-10-07T15:30:06Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > And every once in a while it kills. Sure it won’t hurt a healthy person (AFAIK), but do the cops stop to ask if someone has a heart condition before zapping? A Pole was cop-murdered in the Vancouver airport. After they said he threatened them with a stapler (a deadly stapler, one must assume) and it turned out he didn’t understand enough English to follow their orders. Zap, zap, you’re dead. Well there are [staplers](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_D1HYE8KKHqQ/R7SQpP0n82I/AAAAAAAAAKI/ULO_Iy3Ning/s400/OFFICE_SPACE_SE-0.jpg) and then there are [STAPLERS](http://www.amazon.com/Makita-BST221-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Cordless/dp/B001TWPRAQ).