Moreover, police officers are also highly trained in decision making and in de-escalating potential conflicts rather than allowing them to escalate further. In the hands of untrained members of the public, it is highly likely that TASER products would be deployed in situations where it is inappropriate. Furthermore, the general public is not trained in minimizing the harm to individuals properly subdued by the TASER or in responding to medical emergencies caused even by its appropriate and justified use.
5. Specifically, what community outreach programs might TASER International institute in order to indirectly support its products in the consumer market?
The only conceivable community outreach programs that the organization might pursue to support its products in the consumer market might be those promoting its use in situations where highly trained civilians are already authorized to use deadly force, such as certain site-security professionals, bodyguards, bounty hunters, etc. In principle, any situation where the...
Conversely, it is inadvisable to promote the use of the TASER products in any situation where deadly force options are not already in effect.
6. If you could talk with Tom Smith, president of TASER International, what would you say to him about the ethics of offering his TASER products to the public?
I would suggest that the risk-benefit approach would not support releasing TASER products to the general public. For every situation in which the TASER option would provide a safer alternative to what would otherwise be a justified lethal force situation, there will probably be numerous situations in which the TASER is used inappropriately and unjustifiably. At most, TASER products should me made available only to members of the public who are already authorized to carry and use lethal-force weapons so that the TASER is always less lethal option and never a more dangerous option that any individual is already authorized to use.
