"In January, judges on a federal circuit court instructed
police departments to treat Tasers similarly to the way they treat
firearms — as deadly weapons that can't be used when someone is merely
resisting arrest. Those instructions were a big deal, setting policing
precedent for departments in five states, and potentially leading the
way for much more stringent rules about how Tasers are used by police
nationwide.
Taser International, the company that exclusively
produces and sells those electroshock weapons to police departments,
filed a court document on June 13th asking the United States Supreme
Court to give the circuit court’s instructions a second look. Taser’s
move made sense: if the instructions go unchallenged, some police
departments could change use-of-force policies to place Tasers more in
line with firearms than with less-lethal devices. Taser International
would thus risk competing directly with gun manufacturers to provide
police departments with weapons, threatening the company’s business
model."
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