If you are considering buying a stun gun for yourself or someone else, you might have asked yourself, are stun guns safe to keep around children? Can a stun gun discharge accidentally? If you've never owned a stun gun, it's important to know what to expect before making the decision to own and carry one.
It probably makes sense to first talk about the safety features of stun guns (also known as tasers or tazers. See our post What is a stun gun?). Because nobody wants to accidentally shock themselves or someone else, all stun guns have a form of safety that prevents them from discharging accidentally. The safety feature varies between devices. It could be a a button that needs to be pressed at the same time as the trigger, a switch that needs to be toggled to a certain position or a sensor that can detect if you're hand is on the device. See the photo below, for example, which shows the safety switch on the pen stun gun. Depending on the device's form factor, different safety features are more appropriate, which is why they tend to vary. No matter what stun gun you choose, rest assured, that most of them will come with a safety feature. Make sure you familiarize yourself with it and that it suites your intended use. For example, if you plan to keep a sun gun in your pocket, make sure the safety design makes it unlikely to engage while moving in your pocket.
While stun guns are design to simply, well, stun, you might be wondering if they can cause serious damage, like a permanent injury, or even death. Sun guns are designed to be non-lethal, but accidental deaths are possible, even though very rare. Being electrocuted is a major stress to the body, so people with existing heart conditions or people who may be under the influence of substances that could increase their risk of a hear attack are at risk of death when being stunned. When stunned, e person may also fall or back away suddenly, which exposes them to the risk of hitting their heads or hitting blunt objects. Which is why, you should not use a stun gun on someone unless absolutely necessary. While a stun gun is still far less dangerous than a gun, it should still be kept in a safe place, away from children to avoid accidental injuries.
It's important to use stun guns according to their intended purpose. Don't try to use them on animals. Though the sound and light that the spart produces will often scare dogs and other animals away, actually shocking an animal can have unintended effects, including hurting the animal more than a human or making the animal angrier and more likely to attack. Animals will definitely feel the shock, but since their bodies are quite different then ours (they have different stature, thicker skin, fur etc,), they may feel either more or less pain than a human in the same situation. Their instincts are also different than ours, so aggressive species might not back down when they feel under attack but might avoid a fight altogether if intimidated. If you are faced with a potential animal attack, causing the gun to spart in the air to scare off the animal would be your best approach. Save tasing the animal as your last resort.
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