TASER X3 video hands-on: watch out, baddies
By Paul Miller 
posted Jul 31st 2009 12:24PM
posted Jul 31st 2009 12:24PM
After talking it over with the company, it's clear they've put a lot of effort into making the X3 as safe as possible in the hands of officers or our ever-muggable-grandmas (civilians can purchase the X3, but are limited to a 15 foot range). Here were a few takeaways:
- As stated in the video, a large majority of suspects give up once they see the TASER, see the red dots on them, or the device is "arced," and the X3 has been designed to give the officer a maximum amount of intimidation without needing to deploy a tase.
- There's a sort of "guaranteed" delivery of 63 microcoulombs of energy to the subject, no matter if the target is shot three times, shot once, or if it takes multiple shots to complete a "circuit" with two concurrent darts. This will hopefully rectify earlier problems with faulty devices giving off too much electricity, and allay fears that three darts equals three times the tase. The shooter knows they're delivering the optimum charge to the target, for the optimum amount of time (there's a counter on the gun), and the target can't be given more than that optimum charge at any one time.
- Systems track when the gun is turned on, when the officer "arcs" the gun to intimidate a suspect, when the gun is fired, and serial-numbered confetti ejects with the dart to trace a specific incidence to a specific officer.
- The dart tips have been reworked so that the charge is most likely to be applied to the skin, greatly reducing the risk of the electricity passing through the heart.
- The laser sights are very accurate, self-adjusting based on which cartridge is selected (there are different cartridge distances available).
I prefer spear chucking.
"10x more effective at getting minorities to submit than comparable-strength water hoses!"
DON'T TASE ME BRO...
OR ME BRO...
AND DEFINITELY DON'T TASE ME EITHER BRO...
DON"T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!!!!...
ZZZZZappp
ZZZZZappp
ZZZZZappp
Oh sorry let me buy you a beer....
@ reuthermonkey1
why do you have to bring race into this? you're causing more issues than you're solving.
@murmermer Why not, the president does and if anyone needs a good spear chuck it's certainly him.
A minority can be any race. I think the joke was ok.
Minorities?
They are gonna be using this on White conservatives protesting taxes and Obama's birth certificate.
@Sisyphus
Still living in mom's basement with that sharp wit of yours I see.
I think they should just give the police high power PAINTBALL GUNS. I dunno about you lot but i've been shot by the ones you hire out in the woods with your mates and they are painful enough to bring anyone down. Give the police more powerful versions of those and we have ourselves a more effect police force and much more entertaining streets at night with the drunk people ;)
In Utah, some agencies use modded paintball guns with a pepper compound. I volunteered to be shot with one, thinking it couldn't be so bad.
Yeah. I'll never make that mistake again. Aside from not being able to see for half an hour or breathe through my nose at all for a day, the pepper powder turned into such a fine mist on impact that it went straight into my lungs and made breathing at all suck.
The welt wasn't as bad as a standard paintball because pepper balls are made to use more of their momentum to disperse the powder into a cloud of evil.
@ollie.watkins91
Don't be an idiot. A paintball flying faster than 280fps at a range of under 50 feet can be potentially deadly. At the very least it can break the skin. I've seen someone's goggles cracked open and an eye lost thanks to some jackass running hot and firing a round off at 20 feet.
@ollie.watkins91 They did give the police High powered Paintball guns. The paintballs are filled with pepper spray though in and 2004 when the red sox won the world series a cop shot a 20 year old girl in the crowd in the face from about 15 feet away and she died.
Paint-ball guns are highly inaccurate though and would only contain a crowd from a distance of at least 30 feet.
The future is in microwave pistols that heat up the water in your body and make you "feel like your on fire" (what would you call it when your insides start to boil?). Then protesters can wear chain metal Faraday cages and we can revert back to the mid-evil times, and be swept away by the new strand of Ape Aids.
Bro.. if you're going to tase mem, tase me with this...
test
DONT TASE A BRO
Don't tase me, bro!
one for each testicle please.
You have three testicles? DAYUM
you have 3 testicles?
I'd need three of these if I wanted one for each of my testicles.
ooh wow
Chuck Norris has you beat by 2.
Forget tasing the suspect, just unholster this thing and beat them to death (It's certainly big enough).
I actually wish they didn't make this. Why? Because cops don't need more toys to play with.
@Latin: Yes they do. I for one am glad they made this.
what exactly is there to fear about guns. oh thats right you guys are city folk.
uh huh. people don't kill guns, guns is people
I don't fear guns. Only people like you who are not aware of the fact that these things are dangerous and can be used to kill black as well as white people. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5123965/Mother-kills-son-with-a-bullet-to-back-of-head-at-Florida-shooting-range.html
Guns don't kill people, tasers kill people!
(J/K in case it's not obvious)
Cityslickers
Just stay out of the city, you don't want to get shot.
@weg
I understand they're dangerous thats why there are gun safety classes, but guns aren't the ones that actually hurt people they are just the tool used to that, its the people that hurt other people. you could just as easily hurt or kill someone with a hammer, a pen, or just about anything else. And when did I say anything about race, I don't care who they hurt, I don't use my gun to hurt people I use it for deer during hunting season and bear/coyotes at the cabin when they're trying break shit.
I wasn't aware hillbillies read engadget, much less had internet access.
this is what the internet is for. its called education. consider yourself now more exposed to the cornucopia that is society.
@rv:
Asshole
Im with Justin on this but one thing just because you live in the country doesn't mean you are a hillbillie it just means you are a hard worker who can take the heat and deal with it!
@ blayne - or you just like having more than a tiny lil yard to run around on, value privacy, and enjoy the quiet.
Isnt this the same model, or at least the same brand, as the tasers that were just banned in Canada?
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/03/18/f-taser-faq.html
They're not banned in Canada, they just have restrictions for personal use unlike in the US. Did you even read the crap you linked?
Sorry, I actually read OTHER crap that I didnt link.
"In the face!! In the face!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB9_K5kmoxM
Oh man, here's Taser and LEO debate part 325264363445 about to start... now.
I know that if I was armed and the police shot me with that, I'd wouldn't hesitate to put a couple of hollow-points in their chests when I recovered.
I hope taser-armed-police fatalities rocket
if you were armed w/ hollow points, trust me they would not be approaching you w/ tasers. your ass would get dropped real quick w/ REAL guns.
My guess is that they'd take your gun before you recovered, rather than just leaving you with it.
with that rationale you have the potential to be on "Worlds Dumbest Criminals"
Strong ignorance...
Police threaten people with force, people respond with force...
No police officer should be a allowed to use a taser in active duty if they haven't been shot with one. (inb4 equivalent gun argument because they're not the same)
"I know that if I was armed and the police shot me with that, I'd wouldn't hesitate to put a couple of hollow-points in their chests when I recovered."
So you think that after being tased and "recovered" you still would have control or possession of a firearm? I don't think you could smoke enough meth for that to happen, or maybe I'm wrong. I guess you would know.
actually the police man would arc is gun
you stare incredulously
he fires
you get the bolts in you chest but wait
kevlar!!! Kevlar vest
so then you proceed to pump bullets into the officer
I'm guessing you'd rather get shot by a real gun? =/
@Mr.Stick
Taser probes penetrate kevlar with no problem, not to mention electricity arcs through kevlar with no problem. You still lose.
If you were armed, police would not respond with tasers drawn. They would have their duty weapon drawn. The appeal for tasers is to subdue non compliant people with less than lethal force without placing themselves in a position that would comprimise their safety. Don't think you can "bust out muh glock fawty and drop a bitch" on them without them putting you down first.
Also: "No police officer should be a allowed to use a taser in active duty if they haven't been shot with one. (inb4 equivalent gun argument because they're not the same)"
Police have to go through taser training before they're issued a taser. At the end of the class they're shot with the taser.
"subdue non compliant people "
Yeah, and it's not like the Fuzz to confuse law-abiding citizen with "non compliant" citizen. Pull the other one, it's got bells on.
All kidding aside aren't there known cases of people getting their own back? I mean sooner or later they have to release you, since you most likely didn't do anything anyway, and then in countries where you can buy guns, or with muscled guys, did nobody ever go after the or a cop later? Or is that cleverly not put in the news ever?
I know I could not rest after they did that to me until I did something back, not sure what but something, I just would have a need to balance things again.
I hope I will be able to purchase this in Romania, cause I''m kinda tired of beating up people! :D
You never played Condemned?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM1Ai_Q6uio&feature=PlayList&p=C225240CDA4AF363&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41
I want one, no seriously, does it have a holster?
That is neat.
Has there been evidence that someone actually died DIRECTLY from a taser?
Did you even read the article?
"Amnesty International reports that 351 people have died after being shocked by police TASERs"
Those reports are all indirect results from a taser
>>Did you even read the article?
>>"Amnesty International reports that 351 people have died after being shocked by police TASERs"
That says nothing. You haven't answered the OP's question, which is whether someone has died DIRECTLY from the Taser. Your quote says people died after being tased. Lots of old people dance and smile, and then die some years later. According to your logic, such dancing and smiling is responsible for the deaths of billions of old people.
Engadget did a report a long time ago that its not the Taser that kills you. Its the unnasisted fall.
Yes, according to the study people have died as a direct result. Shock a hundred thousand people and see what happens seems to be how this thing is playing out. The study can be found here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/tasers-potentially-lethal-and-easy-abuse-20081216
"351 people have died after being shocked by police TASERs"
"after being shocked by police TASERs"
This suggests that the people have died from the direct result of being tased as no other factors are mentioned.
I remember when a basic understanding of the English language was wide-spread ...
Uhm yes... http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=death+by+taser
That's like saying stabbing victims die from blood lose and not from getting stabbed... that maybe is true if you utterly and insanely pedantic and anal.
FinchDenton, me too. It 'suggests.' However, if AI actually had the evidence to show that the TASER was responsible in those incidents then they would have said so. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But if you've drunk a lot of alcohol, been belligerent, got tased then died in custody of alcohol poisoning (or drug overdose or whatever) you died after being tased.
See how the English language works? "the number of people who died after being struck by Tasers in the USA reached 334" is the wording from the report, and it's what we call weasel language. It's there to mislead and trick poor readers into believing something that isn't true. At the end of their report: "Although most of the 334 deaths nationwide have been attributed to factors such as drug intoxication, medical examiners and coroners have concluded that Taser shocks caused or contributed to at least 50 of these deaths." So the real number is 50, so taser shocks have contributed to about 7 deaths a year over the course of the study, and they're used thousands of times.
Tasers are misused, I'm sure, but it's not the taser that does the misusing. We've had bad cops that abuse their authority and beat people for as long as we've had cops. Take tasers away and they're just going to go back to beating people with nightsticks.
Wow people, are you really that simple? There isn't enough information to draw any conclusion from that statement. Maybe we should outlaw working because a huge number of people die after going to work that day. This article conveniently leaves out the real meat of what Amnesty International would like to downplay. The same AI report indicates of those 300+ deaths between 2001 and 2008, the Taser possibly contributed to 50 of them. That number is infinitesimal when factored against how many times it was used in those 7-8 years. Far lower than the simple hands-on subduing of a suspect or even the more "organic" eco-friendly solution of oleoresin capsicum (pepper spray). Yeah amazing I know.
Jesus you right-wing nutters are so delusional.
Is there any evidence someone died after a carpetbombing? I know they have reports that thousands died but that might have been of old age.
No one has been directly killed in Iraq/Afghanistan. They died because the hospital staff over there are incompetent. True story.
@Wwhat
How does it feel to be manipulated by dishonest article language and your own personal bias? The real number, as indicated by the same report they quoted, is 50, not 330+ so you might want to consider a critical thinking class at your local community college.
Pshsht, everyone knows they died from heart failure.
duh
Is there something I said that made you think I care about the exact number? Point is it could be you next or your mom or dad, or employer, and point is that's it obvious that running high voltage through random people will get some 'hits' from time to time, the exact number is obviously enormously variable and even regional, based on age and condition and genetic traits and whatnot.
And point is that the cops often use it to intimidate people for their own ego, hell I bet they even asked for that threatening sparks function just so they can intimidate more people and get away with it.
Sorry to the cops who are different types, but if you are you work with the others, you know the truth don't you.
Don't be a d*ck.
You know the facts. Electrical damage to tissue causes both deaths and future complications - this is a number one cause of electricians suffering from tissue degeneration in europe.
Or are you a cop that loves their tazer and concerned that someone will put in laws to control the usage?
Nice reference to Johnny Cash! +1
"I've been practicing a lot on the Wii.. so uh"
*Tom was not amused*
Only made it work better :)
Why is it assumed that only the goodies are going to use this? What if the baddies get a hold of one....It would surely be a more efficient way to get their victims to cooperate.
Yeah, and they can also get hmm let's see... pepper sprays, baseball bats, kitchen knives, and guns.
Tasers have been legal to possess for quite a while and so far they haven't been all the rage among criminals.
1. Criminals resorting to violence are not generally concerned with less than lethal alternatives.
2. You only have 1 (or now 3) cartridges vs. handguns with at least 6 shots to until reload.
3. Tasers+cartridges are way more expensive than guns+ammunition.
4. Intimidation factor: criminals may not intend on resorting to violence with a gun, a plastic yellow blob isn't quite as scary.
5. You will cry after your criminal buddies relentlessly make fun of you.
pfft, i dont intimidate my victims with tasers. i use chain saws and other unwieldly things. flails also work quite well for this purpose!
You didn't even think before you posted that did you? I much rather be tasered by a bad guy then shot or stabbed ot beat.
Have you seen Equilibrium?
For those who haven't, please watch this awesome cheesefest of "Batman" doing gunkata.
For those who have, please upload a video of yourself with two of these ;)
That guy needs to cut his nails.
Police are the literal definition of terrorists.
Seems in the US that is the definition yeah.
Talking about the US, he says 'a study in britain showed that when you arc people surrender', yeah in britain with old-age pensioners and drunken kids, but why a study in britain? Any reason the company likes to use studies done in britain rather than in the US, or australia or something, perhaps a country with people who are less likely to take stuff laying down? Perhaps because the results are what they wanted? could that be why they quote a british study?
@Wwhat
yes, because you're going to display facts that negatively impact your product.
idiot.
**Shockingly Entertaining**
just carry a gun. it's more effective.
so uncivilized...
Fun! What camera was this shot with? It looks great!
"Amnesty International reports that 351 people have died after being shocked by police TASERs"
That's like saying x+y=351. Solve for x and y. I also like how the statement also conveniently leaves out the more important fact from the same report:
Between 2001 and August 2008, 334 Americans died after Taser shocks. The stun gun was deemed to have contributed to only 50 of those deaths.
I've said it over and over again but maybe one or two people will read it and take something away from it each time: Even if the Taser was completely at fault for each of those 50 deaths, the Tasing to death ratio is ridiculously small. Much smaller than ANY other option including just physically subduing someone or even an "organic" solution like oleoresin capsicum (pepper spray). I know, crazy right? If you really care about less people getting hurt/killed, you should be encouraging the Taser replace other less effective and injury prone methods, not the inverse.
Yeah, I love that argument. 'Police used to be TRAINED to deal with people! Now they're just lazy and use tasers, which KILL!' Maybe tasers aren't the perfect solution, but I'm personally not reminiscing about the good ol' days when the cops would just beat you over the head with a nightstick. That's how cops in the UK, for example, used to be trained to incapacitate people- beat them over the head with a stick until they're unconscious.
maybe you should tell your mathematics to those 50 families who have lost a person because of the taser gun. they will surely feel much better then. right??
Maybe we can go back in time and erase the Taser from existence and then you can tell the countless families of all the new people that died as a result of not having it.
if time travel was possible, you would surely be the last person i would go back in time with. i was just trying to bring the point across that you cannot reduce the lives of human beings to numbers. your reply indicates that you didn't get that.
this does more evil than good