Mary-Land To Prohibit Civilian Taser Use

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- "The public use of Tasers is up for debate in Annapolis.

Police officers carry Tasers to temporarily sideline suspects while many consumers carry them for self-defense. But some in Annapolis say they're a threat to public safety.

"If someone were harassing me, you know, or threatening me in some way, I wouldn't hesitate," said one person WBAL TV 11 News reporter David Collins spoke with on Thursday.

Some Tasers can cost around $400 and the electric jolt tends to last 30 seconds. As many as 12,000 police departments, including Baltimore city and many of its surrounding counties, use Tasers as a nonlethal way to subdue suspects, Collins reported.

A bill under consideration in the General Assembly prohibits the general public from owning or using one.

"The intent of the Taser bill is to remove as many of them from the street and to keep as many as them off the street as we possibly can," said Delegate Talmadge Branch, D-Baltimore city.

According to the Web site taser.org, six states -- Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin -- outlaw civilian use of Taser guns. Sixteen others -- Washington, D.C., Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Virginia -- put restrictions on civilian use.

"You don't want any kind of criminals or any kind of individual that's not in their right mind with a Taser or a stun gun in their hand," Branch said.

But Taser enthusiasts have an ally in those who strongly support the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

"You are totally disarming the people of Maryland. Until they give us the right to carry as the Constitution gives us, you can't take away the right to defend yourself with a nonlethal weapon," said Delegate Michael Smigiel, R-Cecil County.

The bill's sponsor expects the measure to pass, but with amendments such as requiring a license to own one, Collins reported."

Amazing that black lawmakers want their constituency as helpless as humanly possible.

Or is it...

That their constituency are the ones most likely to be on the receiving end of a taser?