Taser Parties

Most sensible women groan when they get an invitation to a Partylite, Pampered Chef or Tupperware party. It's fuckin' annoying. Your cousin Jennifer decides she wants a bunch of stuff but she doesn't want to pay for it, so she invites friends and family over for a night of bullshit and highway robbery.

A Taser party is different.

For the woman who is squeamish about lethal force, but who still needs some reassuring power.

With its weapons dominant in law enforcement, Taser is turning its attention back to the civilian market.

It launched the C2 in August. Though it packs the same electric punch, the C2 is smaller than the bulky personal stun guns Taser developed years ago, and its sleek exterior makes it look more like an electric razor than a weapon. They're legal in every state but New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Washington D.C.

Shafman says many of her women customers love that the C2 is small enough to fit in their purses, and that it comes in a variety of colors. When it comes to choosing weapons, she says, a lot of women want them in pink.

Amnesty International has posited its disapproval, saying that police have sometimes improperly used the weapon and that the public will too.

The same is true of nightsticks and knives, which is all that I suppose AI will want citizens to be able to protect themselves with, if at all.

Thanks to genghis, who says "Of course anything that pisses of Amnesty International is good in my book."

UPDATE/ TANGENT: Yet another fatal stabbing in London prompts some to call for even tougher anti-knife laws. In case you hadn't heard, the UK already has strict anti-knife laws, and laws against carrying any object that could somehow be used to inflict harm. If you use even your umbrella as a defensive weapon to protect yourself or your property, you could go to jail.

Norman Brennan, of the Knives Destroy Lives Campaign, reiterated his demand for a mandatory five-year prison sentence for anyone who carries a knife unreasonably. His call came as Islington borough police commander Bob Carr called for automatic prison sentences for anyone found carrying a knife.

Too many laws against weapons, and not enough action against criminals.

Knives do indeed destroy lives. That's why criminals carry them. When knives are outlawed, only outlaws w-- AWWW the Hell with it.

Automatic punishment means no common sense or thinking required, which is what makes it so attractive.

Carry on, then. Let's see what you do when your dear old mum is apprehended carrying a bag of apples and a paring knife over to the neighbor's place.

posted by Laura. at 10:58 AM

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