Word: stunning
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...TIME review of Commerce Department documents shows that Washington has approved a dozen shipments of stun guns and shock batons over the past decade to Saudi Arabia despite that country's long history of brutalizing prisoners. American firms must obtain a Commerce Department license to export shock weapons to most countries, and officials say the applications are closely screened to block the items from falling into the hands of human-rights abusers. Yet Air Taser has been negotiating to supply thousands of electric-shock riot shields for crowd control to police in Turkey, where torture is "widespread," according to State...
...There are ways to get around" the controls, admits Commerce Under Secretary William Reinsch. A license isn't required for exports to NATO countries in Europe, where U.S. stun guns can be reshipped elsewhere. Air Taser has arranged for manufacturing facilities in Russia, Mexico and Taiwan to produce its weapons. Their export from those countries doesn't require U.S. approval...
Another way to avoid U.S. controls is called "drop shipping," say Customs Service agents. An American company barred from exporting stun guns directly to a foreign country pays a producer in a third country with loose export controls to ship the foreign weapons with an American label slapped on them. The U.S. company then bills the customer at a marked-up price and pockets the profit. Customs agents also suspect that many distributors simply file phony export-declaration forms and ship directly to problem countries. Last December, Yuri I. Montgomery, an Olympia, Wash., exporter, was indicted on charges of sending...
...manufacturers and many law officers argue that stun guns actually prevent worse abuse by police. Without a shock weapon, a cop is left with the choice of clubbing a dangerous criminal with a nightstick or shooting him with a handgun, which can cause more severe injuries. Indeed, law agencies in the U.S. have used stun guns thousands of times, and there have been relatively few documented cases of serious injuries. "These devices don't kill people," insists Nova's president, John McDermit. Rick Smith, Air Taser's president, has launched a publicity campaign to rebut Amnesty's charges. In restricting...
Obviously much depends on how the devices are used. Even in the U.S., the record of shock weapons is far from unblemished. Prison guards in California, Arizona and Texas have been accused of tormenting inmates with stun batons. Five states have banned the devices. "It's one of those toys that enterprising manufacturers have developed that sound real good, but their potential for abuse is so great," says Armond Start, a professor at the National Center for Correctional Health Care Studies. And in the hands of a torturer, the "toy" can produce cruel, even fatal, results...