Taser Buzz Kill

There's been a lot of buzz in the press about women's Taser parties. (They're like Tupperware parties, but sell C2 Tasers instead of plastic tubs.)

These reports infuriate me.

Apparently, many women who go to these parties live in constant fear of violent sexual assault. And they believe that having a Taser will protect them. Perhaps they imagine a hooded stranger in their apartment or their parking lot. Perhaps they imagine that they will whip out the Taser, zap the bad guy, and a few minutes later watch as the cops march him off. Bloodless and neat. Her Taser is a "safety blanket," says Dana Shafman, the entrepreneur who started the parties; if she leaves the house without one she goes "into panic mode."

But it's not safety blankets that protect you. You do that.

You start by being informed. Most (68%) violent and/or sexual assaults are perpetrated by a man the woman knows. Most assaults happen in or near the woman's home (72%) or the home of a neighbor or friend (11%). You are much more likely to get hurt in your breakfast nook than in a dark alley. The man trying to hurt you is more likely to be your ex-husband or boyfriend or colleague than a hooded stranger. So, statistically, we're talking about Tasing someone you know who moves on you unexpectedly in close quarters, in a place where you feel safe. But, hey, no problem, because the Taser is pretty foolproof. Right?

Well, no, not exactly.

The C2 Taser electroshock weapon, sold in a range of pretty colours (and designed to look like a woman's electric razor), is a one-shot-only device, effective to a maximum of 15 feet. If you miss with your one shot, you have to use the Taser as a contact stun gun (known as dry Tasing). Dry Tasing is not particulary effective for putting someone down; it hurts but doesn't incapacitate. You have to hold the weapon against your target for at least five seconds - and trust me, it's difficult to do anything for even two seconds in a fight.

So don't miss with that first shot. But, hey, why would you? After all, it's easy to hit something as big as a man from 15 feet. Right?

Well, no, not exactly.

Maybe your assailant will announce politely from no more than 15' away that he wishes to hurt you, then stand still and wait patiently as you struggle to understand what's happening, remember where you put the Taser, pull it out, and aim. Maybe your hands won't be shaking from adrenaline.

Good. Then shoot him and put him down. Put the Taser on the floor next to him and walk away while, for 30 seconds (six times as long as the maximum used by police Tasers), the C2 pumps current into his nervous system. This could lead to permanent heart arrhythmias and/or fractured vertebrae. But why should you care? No doubt your assailant deserves it. There again, the person getting damaged could end up being you. Like any weapon, the Taser can be taken away and used against you. Remember all those stories you've read about home owners killed by their own guns? I see no reason to suppose that the statistics for Taser owners would be any different.

A weapon is only useful if you're willing and able to use it when you're attacked. So if you buy a Taser (or pepper spray, or gun), be prepared to carry it with you everywhere -- the shower, the conference room, while taking out the garbage. Practice drawing it and firing it. Come up with all the what-if scenarios you can imagine, and rehearse them. A Taser isn't a magic amulet, able to protect you simply by existing. It's a tool (a moderately useless one, in my opinion), and it is as only as effective as the person using it.

The quote from a Taser buyer that disturbs me the most comes from an Arizona Taser party host. "If you know you're going to be in a certain situation where you might be uncomfortable, why not have it with you? It just makes you more confident."

And we're back with the notion of a safety blanket. But safety blankets have never saved anyone. Here's a better way to approach the possibility of danger: don't expect a weapon you haven't trained with for a hundred hours or more to function as a mystical shield. If you do, you'll be blunting your most powerful survival tool: your instincts. When you begin to feel uncomfortable in a situation - when you are afraid - that's your instincts, screaming at you that something is wrong. Those instincts can save your life. (Read Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear.) Don't smother them under a safety blanket.

I taught self-defense for five years in the UK. It works. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, women fight off unarmed rapists successfully 72% of the time. If he has a knife, she'll fight him off 58% of the time. If he has a gun, she has a 51% chance. Unarmed, untrained, if you fight back, you'll probably win. But if weapons make you feel better, then just look around you -- they're everywhere. In your purse: perfume, nail file, phone. In your kitchen: cleaning spray, fire extinguisher, all those knives. In your car: air freshener, cigarette lighter, and the car itself.

The world, as Aud Torvingen would say, is a "garden of weaponry." Tasers are the least of these. The most important are the ones you always have with you: your mind, your common sense, your bravery. Your best weapon is yourself.

Comments

[tennjd]

Interesting article. I’d never heard of these taser parties. I agree with your security blanket assessment/analogy. It sounds like to me these parties are another case of wanting to take the easy way out. It’s much easier buy a quick fix than to take personal responsibility and spend the time to learn self defense methods. Reading the Aud novels turned out to be more than entertainment for me; I am more aware of possible dangers in my surroundings (and how to deal with them) than I used to be.

[Nicolagriffith]

Thank you. ALWAYS, the third Aud novel, has two narrative strands, completely separate stories with their own characters, setting, story arc and so on. One is set in Atlanta, in the past, and one in Seattle, in the present. The Atlanta narrative is a series of women's self-defense lessons. Anyone choosing to read it as an instruction manual can do so--they're based on my five years' teaching experience so, in my opinion, they're a sound basis for self-education. But, of course, you can also choose to read it as an action-packed story :)

[shep1900]

Well, there's that whole part where it's the middle of the night, you're afraid, you forget your mother-in-law happens to be visiting--and you go out in the hall and shoot her as she comes back upstairs carrying a snack from the kitchen.

Seems like it could get a little bit hard, and complicated to me.

[Nicolagriffith]

Yep, just the kind of mistake that can happen if you indulge in magical thinking--Taser as amulet--and/or let anxiety overwhelm good sense. Because if you have time to find your Taser, get out of bed, and be waiting to ambush your 'attacker', then you also have time to simply leave the house.

[ReallyEvilCanine]

I've taught dozens of women how to escape from a rapist. Sadly/happily I know it's been successful on at least one occasion. Rape is about power and control. The victim -- in the perp's view, must submit. The proper response: make the attacker believer you're submitting. No matter how distasteful, how repulsive, look at the attacker as if he's the man of your dreams and the love of your life. Caress his face. Ignore his hands and your body and focus on getting your hands to his cheeks. If he no longer has to fight you his defenses go down.

With his cheeks in your hands, caress his face with your thumbs. Once you (ironically) have his submission with both hands on his face, jam your thumbs into his eyes. The pain is immense and his eyes will tear up massively. An opponent who can't see you can't fight you. You should now have enough time to get away. If you're unable to go through with it and submit instead to the penetration, you'll still be better off because you can just stop and your actions won't be seen as offensive or otherwise non-submissive. You're less likely to be beaten senseless.

Once free, a stomp to the balls isn't bad but do this only if it takes no additional effort and the assailant isn't curled up making access difficult.

[Nicolagriffith]

You're talking about stranger rape, I think, the rarest kind. But, okay, let's consider that. Stranger rape generally begins in one of two ways: with an overwhelming, violent attack, often from behind, or with testing behaviour: hey, lady, let me carry those bags, let me open that door, let me...let me...let me... With the first scenario, there's no time for play acting, there's time only to fight. With the second, you say No, very firmly, right from the beginning, you make a lot of noise, you make it clear you're no pushover, and more than likely he'll go find someone less resistant.

But on the rare occasion things do develop to the stage you're talking about, the most important thing is to break his mental image of the scene: pretend to vomit, pick your nose, be insane. It will destroy his pretty little notions. Then you run.

[Pierce888]

Bravo! There's not much worse than false security. Some level of martial arts training also can help in staying calm and assessing the situation.

[slg]

Don't worry if your "assailant" was merely asking directions as he was lost in a strange place and a bit nervous, or trying to take a discrete piss behind a tree, he's a strange man and that's enough justification for any act of "defensive" violence these days.

We've become a broken society because we pander to base emotions like fear and loathing.

[Nicolagriffith]

Well, depending on your definitions, all emotion is 'base', that is, non-rational. And, frankly, any man who urinates in a public place is being not only impolite and insanitary, but foolish.

[desmirl]

Buy a 9 mm, practice with it (lots of practice), don't pull it unless your life is threatened, don't miss and keep firing until the slide locks back. What's so hard about that?

[Liorah]

Well, the hard part is serving the time for felony homicide or murder, unless you live in Texas, in which case you can empty a gun into a random trick-or-treater or two with impunity, as long as you were frightened or upset.

Having a gun in the home makes it three times more likely that someone living there will be killed. Usually this occurs when a family member gets really, really ticked off, happens to find a handy pistol, and takes a few potshots just to "teach that jerk a lesson."

Of all the people killed with guns in the USA, 80% were the victim of a friend or family member, and 20% were killed by strangers.

With odds like that, gun ownership is obviously a potent agent of Darwinian selection, so the problem of gun violence may be self-correcting in the long run.

Geia sou,

Liorah

[desmirl]

My original comment stated, "...don't pull it unless your life is threatened..." The difference between being victim or survivor is often based on that split-second in which one has to choose to fight or submit to an assailant that may have murderous intent. In court,, a defendant needs only to prove that their life was in jeopardy, and that they used reasonable force to defend themselves. Further, you quote statistics about gun deaths. I can quote NRA statistics in which crimes are prevented every day because the intended victim made it evident that he or she would resort to deadly force to protect him or herself. The other thing about statistics: How many family members kill their loved ones because they are incompetent or distracted behind the wheel of the family vehicle? Life does not come with guarantees of fairness and one can chose to be a victim or a survivor. Samuel Colt made us all equal, and for that he has my eternal gratitude.