There’s an inquiry into Tasers going on right now in Vancouver, BC, and in Wednesday’s Vancouver Sun the headline read Taser could trigger a heart attack”.

The doctor quoted here is Dr Michael Janusz, a heart surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital.

“Tasers must be regarded as being capable of causing cardiac arrest.”

“There has to be underlying heart disease or other contributing factors, such as lack of oxygen due to asphyxia or massive bloodloss or severe metabolic abnormalities such as acidosis or abnormal potassium levels, he said.” But given any of those, or a combination, it’s possible, and the risk is not trivial.

Another doctor, specialist in electrophysiology at St. Paul’s Hospital and UBC, Charles Kerr, said “there is a small possibility that an electrical discharge from a Taser dart could directly induce ventricular fibrillation.” (This means that even without the underlying conditions Dr Janusz talked about, it could still happen.)

He said the pain of the Taze causes intense muscle contraction, an increase in heart rate and adrenalin-like chemicals and sympathetic nerve discharge. Couple that with physical restraint and the victim could have trouble breathing properly, which could drop their oxygen levels, which changes the acid balance in the blood, “which would make the patient more prone to ventricular arrhythmias”.

Asked later about multiple Taser shocks, he said that would probably cause more muscle contraction and more acidosis of the blood. (Which I guess would increase the chances of arrhythmia.)

Can’t link right to the article: paywall. But I’m sure it’s been picked up and syndicated by now. Hope it serves.

I’m trying to do some side reading (along with preparing for prelims at the end of this summer) about the actual effects of Tasers on the heart. Lots of papers, in tests done on healthy young volunteers, show no problems — but my question is, how often is someone tasered who does have an underlying heart problem, who is on drugs (legal as well as illegal) that can predispose the heart to arrhythmias (even some common antibiotics fall into this category), etc. I found one guy who was planning to do tests in anesthetized pigs given cocaine, but hadn’t run those tests yet.

I didn’t feel like I had enough background reading to get into an argument with the Taser International booth at Heart Rhythm last week, so I didn’t. Maybe I should have anyway.

Though every time that point gets made, someone points out that knives, bier steins and chair legs in the hands of stupid drunks are actually far more dangerous to everyone within a 20-feet radius than guns. Which makes the desire to arm onself against robbery with a gun when there are perfectly good chairs available kind of academic…

You’re right in that someone determined to carry a pistol around probably wouldn’t care what the law says. But I’m thinking of the borderline cases where people are hotheaded enough to reach for a pistol if it happens to be in their pocket, but would have enough respect for the law not to have the pistol there in the first place if it was illegal. There are probably more of those around than there are hardcore packing criminals.

But couldn’t that be applied to everywhere, not just campuses? I guess age could be a consideration, but you’d think that if it would make sense banning it on campus, then it would make sense banning guns nation wide. (unless you want that, and considering the nature of the blog is a possibility)

A funny side note, in my lease agreement not only are guns banned, but so are javelins, pocket knives, and lawn darts. They actually specify each of those items as not being allowed. And yet kitchen knives, which is allowed, could probably do a better job at harming than any of those things.
Luckily I have my pitching wedge handy incase anything gets too sour.

Wait a second - campus affiliated and it has home invasions?

Time to start raising some serious fucking hell it seems to me … starting with the campus police and moving on from there. Maybe even throwing a good fit when freshmen parents come to visit?? If it is campus affiliated, it needs to be campus patrolled and secured!

Personally, living in a high-crime gun-free campus affiliated housing where a gun point robberies occurred next door to me, I would be much more pleased knowing that I have a gun to protect myself even if it means my neighbors have guns.

Your college neighbors must be much more well-behaved than mine were. If I’d had a gun when my upstairs neighbors were playing “Sex” (that Berlin song) on a one-hour endless loop at 3 am, serious damage might have been done in my sleep-deprived state.

That said, you REALLY need to move. When you start having home invasion robberies, that’s a sign to get the fuck out of that building.

Here’s the story of what they did to me last fall, which was fairly minor — search around a bit, though, and you’ll find many more.

You’re right in that someone determined to carry a pistol around probably wouldn’t care what the law says. But I’m thinking of the borderline cases where people are hotheaded enough to reach for a pistol if it happens to be in their pocket, but would have enough respect for the law not to have the pistol there in the first place if it was illegal. There are probably more of those around than there are hardcore packing criminals.