Word: tasers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...chief competition is the bulkier, higher-priced ($325 to $400) Taser, a ten-year-old apparatus that shoots two wire-trailing darts into its victims, then passes an electric current through the wires. The Taser dart shooter is favored by many police, who would rather keep their distance from violent drunks, drug users and mental patients. Taser says that more than 400 police departments have bought the devices...
...Taser is considered a firearm (because it shoots darts), and its sale is somewhat restricted by federal law, while a handful of states have tougher rules that ban both Tasers and Novas, or limit them to police. Many civil libertarians are cautious supporters of stun guns on the ground that police are more likely to injure suspects with a gun or a nightstick. But the new charges of stun-gun abuse have sharpened their concerns. "The risks are the same as the advantages," answers Greg Thomas, a Washington police researcher. "It all comes back to the judgment and discretion...