PlanetMace Blog

Why Don’t Stun Guns and Tasers Electrocute People?

The beauty of stunning devices such as stun guns and tasers, is that they provide effective self defense in a non-lethal manner that has proven reliable enough for law enforcement as well as private use despite delivering voltages as high as 800,000 volts. Given that this is comparable to the charge given off by a bolt of lightning, many people wonder why these stun devices do not kill people.

The answer lies in the low amperage inherent to these currents, meaning there is not a large difference between the positive and negative nodes of the devices, and so there the current does not oscillate to the high frequencies that cause heat and combustion. The amperage of stun guns and tasers is typically only 3 milliamps, which does not affect the muscle tissue of the body, and does not cause disruptions in the heartbeat that might cause cardiac arrest. It also limits the effects of the current to the body of the target, as the current is able to pass out of the gun, into the muscles of the attacker, and back into the device without the possibility of others who come into incidental contact with the target to be shocked.

As such, these stunning devices do not actually work by inflicting pain on the subject, but rather work by causing a chemical reaction in the muscles that causes them to rapidly discharge their available energy reserves: stored as blood sugar. Blood sugar is rapidly converted in to lactic acid, which is what causes our muscles to feel sore when we over exert ourselves from physical activity. Essentially, this causes the target of a stun device to expend as much energy from their muscles as they would by spending all day in the gym in just a few short seconds. This causes them to lose power until they can recover, and even then are likely to feel soreness and tightness of muscles. In rare occasions, the rapid amount of work done by the muscles in the body can cause convulsions that may themselves cause ruptures in the back vertebrae of the target, but this is rare.

The devices similarly disrupt the neuron transmitters that control motor functions from the brain to the rest of the body, and this similarly causes the target to lose control over their body and collapse to the ground. While the act of falling may cause additional injuries to the head and arms in particular, the effect does not rely on pain to disable the aggressor.

Also, there is a common misconception that blue electricity is hotter or more powerful than a yellow spark, when in fact the opposite happens to be true. While blue may make for a powerful statement, yellow sparks indicate a higher voltage and will typically disable an attacker in about half the time it takes for a lower charged, blue spark to achieve the same effect.