Stun Gun Injury: Care Instructions (2024)

FAQs

How do you treat a stun gun injury? ›

Put ice or a cold pack on the sore muscles for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. Put a thin cloth between the ice and your skin. You may also try heat for sore muscles. Put a warm water bottle, a heating pad set on low, or a warm cloth on the area.

Full recovery takes about five to ten minutes. There is no permanent harm.

While generally considered less harmful than firearms, tasers can still cause temporary pain and muscle contractions. In some cases, there is the possibility of more significant injuries and even permanent damage.

Tasers, AKA stun guns, cause your muscles to seize up, which can make them sore for days after. Puncture wounds, cuts, and bruises are common injuries following a shock from a Taser or stun gun. In rare cases, Tasers can damage kidney function or cause testicular torsion.

Stun guns can leave small burn marks on the skin, a Denver police spokesman said Saturday. "They actually burn the body," said Sgt. Dennis Cribari. The guns usually have two prongs on them that deliver the jolt of electricity and leave marks that look like "a little round dot or burn," said Cribari.

A stun gun hit can leave marks on the skin. These might be small burn spots or tiny holes where the metal touched you. Such injuries happen because of the heat and force from the electric shock. Inside your body, things can get rough too.

A shock from a stun gun of one second or less will cause pain and minor muscle contractions. Stunning the assailant for one to two seconds will cause spasms and a dazed mental state. Stunning an assailant for three to five second will cause loss of balance and muscle control.

The stun-gun injuries consisted of many pairs of round erythemas with or without central paleness, some of which were accompanied by circumferential abrasions.

While a TASER device is just as painful as a normal stun gun, it's more effective at incapacitating muscle functions so an attacker can't move. The projectile prongs on TASERs make them ubiquitous among law enforcement agencies with police TASER devices offering more range than consumer models—up to 35 feet.

electrodes at the victim. The barbs penetrate the skin, causing a painful wound that requires careful treatment, especially if the barbs penetrated near a sensitive body part like the neck or face.

Will a stun gun stop an attacker? ›

Stun guns can incapacitate an attacker, but a Taser is usually more likely to stop someone in their tracks. Tasers can be used from a farther distance. If you're looking for an effective self-defense weapon that can keep you safe both at close and long-range, a Taser is the better option.

It's not always immediately clear why a Taser wasn't effective. Some people have tugged the metal probes from their bodies, rendering the device useless. Mental illness or drug use can also influence how a person reacts to the shock. Sometimes the fault lies with officers who don't use them properly.

The effects of a taser usually wear off in minutes without harmful, long-term consequences, but the weapons have been known to trigger severe heart complications — even in otherwise healthy people.

You lose control.” Their comments illustrate an unmistakable truth: Tasers are painful. People shocked by them often call the experience the most painful of their lives. “Every inch of your body is going through excruciating pain,” said Bryan in a court deposition.

Aiming the stun gun on the neck or face causes pain, but to incapacitate an attacker, aim for large muscle groups like chest, back, shoulders, groin. Clothing can block some of the electric shock from a self-defense tool. Try to hit spots where clothes are thinner, like underarms, for better effect.

Starr, JD, MSN, APRN, CNP, FNP-C, replies: Taser is the brand name for a conductive energy weapon (CEW) that fires two electrical darts into the target's skin. Connected to the firing device by thin wires, the darts deliver an electrical current that causes muscle spasms and temporary paralysis.

A 2014 research review suggested that tasers can cause a life threatening arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation (VF), even in physically healthy people with no prior heart conditions.

Although stun guns apparently don't inflict long-term physical damage, they cause pain, numbness, disorientation and loss of balance that lasts about 15 minutes. They can also inflict small, whitish circular burns.