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UID:20260811T113145EDT-0972MNfOOT@132.216.98.100
DTSTAMP:20260811T153145Z
DESCRIPTION:The injuries produced by firearms have been well known\nfor cen
 turies\, but the physiological effects and possible lethality\nof stun gun
 s are still hotly debated. Stun guns are\nconducted energy weapons that de
 liver a series of short pulses of\nelectrical current through darts projec
 ted over the subject. The\nresulting effect is uncontrollable muscle contr
 action and\nincapacitation of the targeted subject. The use of these new\n
 weapons by law enforcement agencies has increased dramatically\nduring the
  last decade as has the number of deaths occurring\nproximate to exposure\
 , thus raising concerns about the safety of\nthese weapons. The evaluation
  of the lethality of these weapons has\nbeen difficult due to the relative
 ly small number of related\ndeaths\, the multiplicity of confounding facto
 rs such as drug abuse\nand police restraints that are associated with arre
 st-related\ndeaths\, and the lack of publicly available data relevant to t
 hese\ndeaths. Recently\, measurements of the electrical characteristics of
 \n41 stun guns performed for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation\nshowed
  that 10% of these devices generated abnormally high\nelectrical current. 
 These results prompted law enforcement agencies\nin Quebec\, British Colum
 bia and Alberta to test more than 500\nsimilar devices (Taser model X26): 
 their results revealed that 10%\nto 12% of the stun guns were outside the 
 range of the\nmanufacturer’s specifications (high output charge and/or slo
 w pulse\nrate). Moreover\, for an older model used by the RCMP in British
 \nColumbia (Taser model M26)\, 80% of the devices failed to operate\nwithi
 n the manufacturers specifications. The talk will address the\nstun gun op
 erating modes\, its physiological effects\, the context of\nuse\, the elec
 trical tests performed recently in Canada\, the\nelectrical safety standar
 ds\, an epidemiological analysis of the\nfatalities and some recent recomm
 endations of Canadian commissions\nand law enforcement agencies.\n
DTSTART:20090921T220000Z
DTEND:20090921T233000Z
LOCATION:CA\, 801 Sherbrooke St. West\, 801 Sherbrooke St. West\, Otto Maas
 s Chemistry Building Room 10\, Montreal
SUMMARY:Sigma Xi Lecture
URL:/channels/event/sigma-xi-lecture-109287
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