HARDWARE
Consider the difference between tabasco sauce and wasabi. Tabasco burns, so when the guy next to you eats too much, you know he's in pain by the way he gasps and chokes. Now, a big hunk of wasabi will cause a minor riot in your nose and mouth, but it's a different sensation altogether, highly unpleasant, yet not exactly painful in the traditional sense. Like being shot with a taser.
Standing there, wearing a leather jacket to protect my skin, I braced myself as my friend aimed the brand-new Advanced Taser M26 at me. (The M26 is available only to law enforcement, but you can expect nearly the same punch from the civilian M18L.) The shot caused a feeling all over like I'd struck my funny bone. I'm delighted to say it works - it knocked me flat on my ass.
Taser guns - "less-lethals," in cop talk - are designed to temporarily incapacitate at a distance of up to 15 feet in a nonfatal and more or less humane way. Getting shot with a taser gun is no joke, though. Here's what happens: The weapon throws two barbed, metallic contacts, which snag in the target's clothing (or, for the less lucky, the skin). The projectiles are attached to lengths of taser wire, which conduct an incapacitating charge of 50,000 volts, called a T-wave. The wave acts like static on a phone line, disrupting communication in your nervous system.
Taser International made the gun available to civilians in 1994, getting around BATF rules because the device propels its electrical probes with compressed air rather than gunpowder (which puts this taser in a different class from firearms). With almost twice the power of earlier models (the M-series operate at 18 watts for the civilian model and 26 watts for police models), the latest devices are shockingly effective. Even thick clothing won't help, since the T-wave can penetrate up to 2 inches of sweater or jacket. The M-series guns heft like automatic pistols (the ordinary AA batteries even load clip-style), and the M18L and M26 sport an integral laser sight that puts a bright red dot where the upper of the two projectiles will strike - another improvement over earlier models, which required awkward clip-on sights. The M18L comes with two compressed-air ammunition cartridges, an instruction booklet with CD-ROM, and a full-size metallic target poster that shoots off blue arcs when hit.
The M26 has received accolades from law enforcement agencies around the country. Self-defense can be a murky business, and the M-series Advanced Taser is still one of the best solutions available to the age-old concern of legitimate personal protection.
Advanced Taser M18L: $599.95. Taser International: (800) 978 2737, www.airtaser.com.
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