One of the standard tropes in science fiction is some kind of device that can render someone unconscious — you know, like a phaser set to stun. We can imagine times when being aggressively knocked out would lead to some grave consequences, but — we admit — it is probably better than getting shot. However, we don’t really have any reliable technology to do that today. However, if you’ve passed a modern-day policeman, you’ve probably noticed the Taser on their belt. While this sounds like a phaser, it really isn’t anything like it. It is essentially a stun gun with a long reach thanks to a wire with a dart on the end that shoots out of the gun-like device and shocks the target at a distance. Civilian Tasers have a 15-foot long wire, while law enforcement can get longer wires. But did you know that modern Tasers also fire confetti?
It sounds crazy, and it isn’t celebratory. The company that makes the Taser — formerly, the Taser company but now Axon — added the feature because of a common complaint law enforcement had with the device. Interestingly, many things that might be used in comitting a crime are well-understood. Ballistics can often identify that a bullet did or did not come from a particular weapon, for example. Blood and DNA on a scene can provide important clues. Even typewriters and computer printers can be identified by variations in their printing. But if you fire a taser, there’s generally little evidence left behind.
Well, that was true until the AFIDs (Anti Felony Identification) came on the scene in 1993. The Taser uses a cartridge that has one or more spools of wire. When you fire the unit, you remove the cartridge and replace it with a new one. The cartridge also has some kind of propellant that fires the dart and wire. Early cartridges used gunpowder, although the newer ones appear to utilize gas capsules. The wire moves between 180 and 205 feet per second. But modern ones also have a few dozen very small disks inside that spew out under the force of the propellant. Each tag has a unique serial number for that cartridge.
Sure, if you have time, you could sweep up the 20 or 30 little tags. But they are less than a quarter of an inch around and disperse widely. Plus, you can’t be sure exactly how many tags are in any given cartridge, so you’d have to be very thorough. In fact, it is hard enough for investigators to find them when they want to. The tags are colorful and show up better when using special lights.
This isn’t just theoretical, by the way. Milwaukee police used AFIDs to track down a thief who stunned a musician and made off with a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth about $5 million. In another case, a man did extensive research about killing his boss to avoid being caught embezzling. He used a Taser to subdue his victim and knew to vacuum up the AFIDs, but didn’t get them all, allowing police to identify him as the killer.
Some printers and copiers leave digital fingerprints, too. On the other hand, some people seem to enjoy getting the occasional jolt of voltage.
DO cop Tasers have these little tags? Because it would be so much worse if the answer was no.
Yes they do. Worked in IT for a police department, taser was accidently discharged at role call, helped pick up all the little dots.
Haha classic… At least it wasn’t the other gun. What do you get for a taser ND anyway?
Weapons using sound or microwaves.
Pretty sure both do actually influence stuff in the area they were used more than a taser.
eg. microwaves would damage surrounding plant life, wood etc.
Detecting sound weapons after the incident is probably even more difficult but not impossible.
a more evil version of rainbow farting unicorns.
They have added something similar to gunfighter that’s at least sold in the United States I’m not sure about other countries but in the United States All gunpowder that sold for the purposes of refilling your own ballistic cartridges contain microscopic wafers that have color-coded tags in the powder so it can be traced to its origin. And these aren’t RFID tags these are pieces of small silicon wafers that have had likely vapor dip as a deposition of a colorful oxide of different metals which are theirs and identify the batch and manufacture.
got a source? A keyword to search?
No he doesn’t because it’s a load of bunk
been there for years.
https://www.npr.org/2013/04/24/178858037/taggants-in-gunpowder-might-have-helped-identify-bombers
Taggant.
Wiki, etc. will bring it up. I didn’t know they were doing it already, saw it on TV years ago.
What is the value here? If this worked as described it would mean we could confirm that batch XYZ shot someone. But ammo is freely sold without tracking. So I have a pool of probably a few hundred ammo boxes that could have shot someone. That goes down to a few dozen potential original purchasers (who we have no mechanism to find). Who can all easily say they sold the ammo to someone else…
You would need a national registry of all ammo boxes for this to even start doing something.
I am in no way condoning this, BUT…. this could be used to positively identify someone you suspect. Just like tool marks can be matched. If there is any trace of this gunpowder remains at your suspect’s residence, you compare that to what you found at the scene.
It was successfully used as evidence in the murder case UNITED STATES of America v. James L. McFILLIN. That was a specific batch of explosives, though, far less common than a box of ammo. It was the combination of explosive batch ID’d by taggant + location + sale records. So right now this wouldn’t work in the US with ammo. Although in a smaller country with restricted sale of ammo it may work.
Yes, please cite a source.
I believe the word is “taggant”, and from what I can tell the National Rifle Association has successfully prevented them from being using in the United States. Again, as far as I can tell and happy to be shown otherwise.
Yes because when your militia is fighting the Army to wrest control from the Government (which the the raison d’etre for the NRA) the last thing you need is the feds tracking whodunnit.
I never understand people who have derangement syndrome about the NRA of all things. In what world is that organization relevant to anything.. Even 2a groups generally view them as useless these days
“The NRA wants to overthrow the US government” SUUUUUUURE they do.
Less post make-y more meds take-y.
What? No, that’s not a thing.
Chemical tags to help law enforcement can trace quantities of explosives sold over the counter? I think it’s a thing. You can do a lot more with cordite and smokeless powders than just reloading you know.
It was a proposal that taggants be added to gunpowder and there is a DOJ study but I’m not sure if it actually was incorporated into any of the legislation I wasn’t focused on that particular legislation at the time.
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/taggants-explosives
“taggant” is the key word, thanks
Pain compliance is hardly ever useful in law enforcement. One look to the multiple YouTube channels will demonstrate that. The taisers in question use pain compliance for contact but the current/frequencey/voltage of the projectile ones actually causes more than pain it depolarizes muscle. That’s when people get really hurt they sort of lock up then fall like timber and crack the skull on the curb or whatever. Also though the failure rate to penetrate clothing etc is super high and even these taisers basically suck. Again ref: many many YouTube law enforcement videos.
Virtually your entire comment is unequivocally and demonstrably wrong. The taser has absolutely nothing to do with PAIN but everything to do with temporary neuromuscular incapacitation. When it works, the subject fells like a dictators statue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser
We could hack a Taser to kill someone, hmm.
It already has the potential. Think of victims with heart failure or pacemaker.
No weapon is non-lethal, it can only be less lethal, even physically restraining someone could cause them to die.
I wonder if the inventors of the electric chair had thought same.
Perhaps it was all misunderstood and once had a therapheutical use, too?
Electro shock theraphy had been used in asylums in early 20th century, I read.
“Electro shock theraphy had been used in asylums in early 20th century, I read.”
Electroconvulsive therapy is still used today for severe depression, bioolar disorder, schizophrenia, catatonia, and in some cases of dementia.
The electric chair was intentional. Its inventor, a dentist, witnessed a man accidentally electrocuting himself by touching a live generator. Seeing the death as instant and painless he created a prototype using a modified dentists chair as a more humane alternative to hanging.
I was under the impression that the electric chair had something to do with the current wars between Edison and Westinghouse and all those electrocuted dogs and an elephant. I believe Edison even suggested that execution in the electric chair be called “being Westinghoused”.
@Hirudinea
The electric chair was invented in 1881.
The Battle of the Currents took place from 1886-1892.
The electric chair was first used on a human, William Kemmler, on August 6, 1890
Westinghouse dropped $100K in defense fees attempting to stop Kemmlers execution as Southwick’s invention was powered by a Westinghouse AC generator, and Westinghouse didnt want AC solidified as the executioners current.
So while it did get tangled up in the edison/westinghouse drama it was in no way a product of it.
We’d at least like to think ECT is used for more severe cases now. It was used rather casually in some places in the US well into the mid-1960s. It sounds barbaric but has been associated with some success.
Even a phaser set to stun can kill someone if they bang their head on the way down. Over 17,000 deaths in the USA in 2017 from Traumatic Brain Injuries due to falls.
It happens. It´s rare but it happens. And the victims are something perfectly healthy. As stated by wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser_safety_issues:
“The TASER device is a less-lethal, not non-lethal, weapon”
Individual variance makes it essentially impossible to find a quantity of force that will consistently incapacitate everybody, yet also be guaranteed not to harm anybody. It’s not like the human body has a standby switch somewhere
What about the Vulcan nerve pinch????
Freedom curtailed by taser, or get married. Similar outcome.
Punchline:
Crying drunk man on 20th anniversary: ‘If I’d killed her, I’d be getting out now!’
Or as GNR put it – “I used to love her, but I had to kill her………. and I can still hear her complain”
This is the answer…
https://youtu.be/Qjax_7lNlcc?si=P77xxxRNV0VNr-dk