In plain terms, a stun gun is a device that uses an electric shock to cause pain, disorient or incapacitate a (potential) attacker. There are stun guns that require physical contact to be made with the target, meaning you have to be close enough to touch the target with the device and there are stun guns that can shoot out electrodes onto the target which can be effective even several feet away from the target. The later are often referred to as tasers, or even tazers, though both terms are technically incorrect. The word TASER is actually an acronym (stands for Thomas A. Smith's Electric Rifle) and most importantly, a trademarked brand name. Thomas A. Smith is not the inventor of the stun gun, he's actually a book character that the actual inventor, Jack Cover, used to name his invention after. To complicate things further, the company that makes the TASER brand of stun guns is actually not TASER, but Axon Enterprise. Confused yet?
Furthermore, the TASER brand of stun guns consists of several devices, some of which don't shoot out electrodes (like the Strikelight2 flashlight combination device, for example). By now, it's probably obvious why the popular name "tazer" is not a correct term either. The fact that law enforcement officers have used the electrode shooting form of the devices and have been trained to use the word "TASER" before deploying this device (an argument about the correct use of the term in the event of a potentially dangerous situation would definitely not be the way to go) have made more people associate the word with the electrode shooting form, but the term "taser" gets often used to associate it with all forms of stun guns, even those not TASER branded, or contact based. Definitions for stun guns in various states' legislature that cover rules for their possession and use, for example, define them as any device that can basically shock someone. The terms electroshock device, electroshock gun, or energy weapon is also used to refer to any of these devices, but is are as popular.
Why the confusion around stun guns and TASERs naming? Two big factors drive this heated debate. One is the fact that Axon owns the trademark for the TASER brand. If the word became what everyone calls a sun gun, they could lose the trademark. So, they advocate for other terms, like energy weapons (and as you can probably tell, not very successfully). The other factor, as mentioned above, is (to Axon's fortune and misfortune) the overwhelming use of TASER stun guns in the police force. This has lead to the name TASER being so widely used to refer to stun guns.
We prefer the term stun gun for all devices, weather they are the contact (like the Baton) or electrode shooting type (like the Pulse 2) , so that's what we'll use throughout our articles and pages.
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