Non Lethal Weapons Essay

The research topic we have chosen to research is Tasers. The use of Tasers has been a very controversial topic in the last few years. Reporters, doctors, and human rights groups have all expressed concern that police officers will use a Taser in situations when no weapon is required and concern has also been expressed over if the Taser is really a less-lethal option. No one claims the use of Tasers to be risk-free but studies have found them comparatively safe. We believe that people opposed to Tasers ignore a body of the reports showing the technology is safe and effective. The research question we hope to answer is: Is the deployment of a Taser a safe and viable

The use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) has been a subject under heavy debate throughout its history. A Conducted Energy Weapon is a device that works by “incapacitating volitional control of the body” (White & Ready, 2009), thus rendering the target unable to resist arrest. The TASER® in particular is the most widely used CEW. An article on the RCMP website states that CEW’s were adopted as another means to obtain compliance from resistant or harmful subjects when the police must arrest them. These tools allow police at these times to protect the public, and the subjects themselves from being harmed. Despite their effectiveness however, CEW’s have been under heavy scrutiny for a number of reasons. CEW’s have been known to cause

There are many views about gun control especially about assault weapons. People are both for it and against it. The people who are for the ban believes the weapons can only be used for violence. They don’t want to recognize that people against the ban have several different reasons to own their guns. These reasons can vary; some people just want protection; others want to use their guns for sport. This pleasurable pastime will also provide a variety of food to supplement family grocery supplies and to help people save on food costs. Instead of making more gun control laws the ones we have should be enforced.

The issue of banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines has been debated for years, but has never been discussed with such urgency as it is now. The issue is the banning of assault weapons in our society. Are we the kind of country that allows and encourages its citizens to own weapons of mass destruction? The moral issue we face is banning ownership of these weapons to ordinary citizens while protecting their rights under the second amendment of our Constitution. Considering the bloodshed and death that assault weapons cause in the hands of citizens and criminals, it seems to me that assault weapons do not have a place in our homes and society.

Technology used in policing enhances law enforcement organizations’ ability to function because it has improved police databases, reports, tracking, and forensics (DOJ, 2004). In addition, a less-lethal weapon is designed to disable, capture, or immobilize a suspect without killing them. However, occasionally deaths do happen as a result of less-lethal weapons which include kinetic energy, electrical, acoustic, and chemical weapons. Furthermore, violence, disease, and infected evidence are dangers that law enforcement officers face today.

Assault weapons are the newest and the most popular type of firearm. When most people hear the term ‘assault weapon’, they think of an unnecessary weapon and their connections to mass shootings. That type of thinking is necessary when it comes to these types of weapons, and too many those disagree with people who think this way. There arguments are, “This is America,” and “It’s guaranteed in the second amendment,” but the issue is assault weapons have no place in American society outside the military and police use. The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This sentence written by our forefathers says nothing about which weapons are allowed in this country. So it is up to our government to decide which guns are legal and which guns are illegal. From a logical and educated perspective all assault weapons should be banned from public distribution and possession, and be restricted to use by our police and armed forces. This can easily be proven by why the 1994 gun ban was not successful, assault weapon capabilities in the hands of citizens, and solutions to assault weapon control.

School shootings, gang violence, drive by shootings, murder, and thousands of acts of violence are committed every day. Members of our society criticize their own people for this violence while they continue to sit back and do nothing about it. These acts of violence have many contributing factors. Violence in our country today is escalating because we don't control the distribution of the guns sold. There are not enough restrictions on guns sold legally. The illegal purchase of guns through the black market is out of control. There is not enough education on the usage and storage of guns.

In the African American community, 83 percent of homicides are due to gun violence. In black communities gun violence is commonly misunderstood as gang affiliation, which is false. Studies show over 50 percent of gun crimes committed were not related to a felony, but were due to some disagreement. The gun epidemic in predominantly black communities aren’t just disagreements, but race wars, police brutality, gang related, and even no reason at all.

For hundreds of years, the United States has debated to what extent the 2nd amendment has really applied to the citizens of the nation. Concealed weapons licenses have almost always been an option for the people to feel safe knowing they are protected, but many think that this is the reason for such crime this world sees, and have tried to take that power from “We the People.” Concealed weapons availability should not be tinkered with, and the 2nd amendment shall stand as it has for the last 224 years.

Use of fire arms as the choice weapon by police officers have been around since the late 1800s. Police departments started issuing firearms to police officers in a response to better-armed criminal populations, (Bulman, 2010). Recent studies have shown that less lethal weapons decrease the rate of police officers and suspect injuries. Because evidence supports less lethal weapons for police officer, many law enforcement agencies have agencies are stressing the use of less-lethal weapons. In the early 19th century, the less than lethal weapon of choice was the wooden club, (Bulman, 2010). Less than lethal weapons have evolved to technology such as conductive energy devices (CEDs), commonly known as the Taser.

Issues surrounding the utility and costs of the use of force by correctional officers remain largely unresolved. (Carlson & Garrett, 2008) Corrections institutions are extremely tough organizations in which all activities are carried out in an environment of uncertainty. (Carlson & Garrett, 2008) In both jails and prisons, where staffs are usually unarmed and always outnumbered by the population of resistant prisoners, the ability of staff to control the prisoners is a matter of major importance. (Carlson & Garrett, 2008)But the policy that gives correctional officers license to use force only when no reasonable effective alternative appear to exist. (Boston, 2006) The level of force and the type of weapon best suited to a particular incident

The use of excessive force by police officers is a topic that continues to make headlines and a study that needs to be done. Although much research has gone into this topic there still is no consensus on why the use of excessive force occurs. Some studies suggest lack of training and/or problems with organization policy/procedures. Law enforcement officers are authorized to use force when necessary, but when the level of force is excessive, however, the actions of the police come under scrutiny. The resulting effects can include; public outrage, scandal, negative reputation for not only the officer but the law enforcement community, and criminal considerations. Although there’s is no concrete definition of excessive force, police

The use of less-lethal force by law enforcement personnel started in the “1960s during the civil rights and anti-war movements” (Wilson 218). These movements assisted tin creating situations in which large groups of people were coming into contact with law enforcement. Given the emotional status to these situations, violent encounters started becoming more widespread. As such, less lethal methods of crowd/riot control became the focus for law enforcement. At the time, chemical agents/irritants were the most frequently used method to control riots.

Therefore, it is paramount that law enforcement officers be provided with effective equipment that would facilitate them in the fight against crime. Traditional ways of fighting crime such as the use of pepper spray, batons and physical force are no longer effective as criminals get more and more sophisticated. On the other hand, the use of firearms especially on highly violent criminals is not effective because they result in deaths of criminals who would otherwise have been arrested. Arresting criminals is important in the fight against crime because most of the times, these criminals have vital information which can help security personnel effectively fight crime (Brandl & Stroshine,

This proves that taser is an effective non-lethal weapon that can be used to subdue the criminals. Here are some possible advantages of taser guns, first, taser is a non-lethal weapon. As we may have already know, tasers are meant to take down the suspects without injuring or killing them. Also, it is safer to use in a situations where there are many bystanders in the scene, since tasers do not harm people around the intended suspects. This also leads to the second point of avoiding the usage of lethal weapons. So far, 1689 people have been killed by the police in a crime related actions (May, T. 2014). By promoting the usage of tasers, police officers around the world can lower the number of suspects being killed in the scene. Using the lethal weapon also dangers the suspects, police, and the bystanders, because firearms are a lethal weapon that can take away lives easily. Tasers also requires minimal training to use the functions, which also makes the officers and other security related people to easily use tasers in action. On the other hand, typical fire arms requires more training time to properly use them in order to avoid any accidents with it. Fourthly, by using taser, the injury rates dropped significantly. Taser have been used within law enforcement agencies from 1998, and from that time, according to the Taser International, taser helped lower injuries among officers and