Wednesday afternoon involved a pain I cannot even begin to fathom or describe. The entire day we learned about the X26 Taser and what it is capable of doing. We saw videos of combative subjects drop instantaneously. We saw demonstrative videos comparing the effects of the X26 to previous models, and how far superior the X26 truly is. The videos showed it all.
What they didn't explain is how much that thing would hurt. To give you all a quick crash course in taser history, the original handheld tasers were operating under the idea of pain compliance - I cause you enough pain to make you change your mind from your previous actions. These worked well on subjects that were not hell bent on assaulting you, or who weren't under the influence of some nerve deadening agent such as Meth, PCP, or high quantities of alcohol. The latest version of Taser technology has jumped from just pain compliance to what is called, "neuro-muscular incapacitation." The pulse rate of the new taser mimics the human body's way of communicating from the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord) to the muscles. Now it doesn't just mimic it but rather interferes with it all.
It was explained like this - If two people are talking on a phone line, communication is going back and forth flawlessly. But if someone else, a third person, picks up a phone on the same line and screams into it, the communication between the first two people is lost due to the interference. The taser basically comes in through the back door and screams into your body's communication system - only it doesn't sneak in through the back door but rather blasts through it with a shape charge and a pissed off SWAT team.
The end result is involuntary muscle contraction and a subject can no longer physically resist, EVEN IF they cannot feel the extreme pain. Oh yeah, that pain is 50,000 volts.
Well, I still didn't think it would be that bad knowing we all would be tased by the end of the day to earn our certification. I watched my classmates get tased and heard the screams of pain. There were the occasional - ok there were many - four letter words. Each one said it was the worst thing they had experienced, yet I remain unconvinced it could possibly be that bad. HOLY CRAP I WAS WRONG! I saw sparks come from my freaking elbows! ELBOWS! That is the most unnatural thing I have ever seen. The pain, on a scale from a 1-10, was a 39. I was completely at the mercy of the person using the taser, and I physically couldn't do a thing to get it to stop. By the way, the taser automatically runs for 5 seconds - the longest 5 seconds in history. I could swim the Pacific ocean faster than the amount of time it felt like I was being fried.
My word of advice. If you, for whatever reason, have the opportunity to be tased, whether it be voluntary or you are drunk and combative, DO NOT TAKE IT. Follow ALL instructions immediately, and follow them with due haste.
I asked two mothers in the class if being tased was worse than giving child birth. They said child birth was worse because it lasts so much longer, but the taser is the most similar. So there you have it, on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at approximately 4:15 pm, I gave birth.
I found this website where they guy did a pretty good job describing the whole ordeal - http://saunderslog.com/2006/05/02/can-you-power-a-taser-with-2-aaa-batteries/
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2 comments:
It was quite an experience! I really didn't feel much pain but maybe thats because I was concentrating on the fact I couldn't breathe... Good job though!
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