Not to glorify an overly weaponised culture, but did you know that like scuba-diving (a self-contained underwater breathing-apparatus) that a taser electroshock gun is a trade-marked abbreviation for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle, the NASA researcher who developed the prototype in 1974 naming it in honour of his boyhood hero's daring adventures?
Tom Swift had adventures like Buck Rogers or Perry Rodan but this prolific inventor was usually more Earth-based, like a predecessor to the Tony Stark behind Iron Man. I thought it was some contraction for a
tag-laser, since two little electrode darts are projected at the target, unlike a stun gun that requires direct proximity. In any case, once one is
it, then one is subject to all sorts of debilitating pain, which is the point of less lethal defense and offense but sometimes the effects linger, especially within a regiment of abuse among trigger-happy authorities who think there's a way to deal with the criminal or unruly without consequence.
