Am I being really stupid, or is it incredibly easy to counteract tasers with something you would find in your kitchen....conductive foil? Would wrapping yourself in this simply cause a short circuit taking all the current away from your body? If this is the case, then an item of clothing which has interwoven low-resistance material would be a valuable black market edition. Please tell me if I'm missing something obvious in the nicest way possible because I've just got out of bed and I'm still groggy, but I feel compelled to suggest this.-- 1234L5tuff, Jun 04 2003 Taser guts http://www.emanator...igclive/stunner.htmI love people who buy things just for taking them apart... [Tiger Lily, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004] black coffee?-- po, Jun 04 2003 Humans have more mass than a layer of foil, yet the voltage in a taser is high enough to discharge through out a person's body and still cause painful disruption to the nervous system.
There is a new generation of tasers which are liquid charged. These are more sinister yet. They work like a super soaker filled with a saline based solution which carries the current. Imagine getting that in your eyes and/ or up your nose. I shutter...-- Tiger Lily, Jun 04 2003 If you're referring to the skin, then the nerves underneath will be affected, which is what confuses the nervous system...? I best point out that I am lame at biology, but moving on from my inadequacies: although conductive, I'm sure the skin has a much higher resistance than most conductive metals, and so the metal would divert most of the current away from the body. In order to overcome such metallic protection, the voltage would have to be so high as to be lethal to anyone without protection, which would eliminate the whole "non-lethal" idea behind tasers.
I hadn't heard about the saline solution tasers. What if you used it against a strong wind, you could, rather ironically, end up spraying yourself :D ... might want to consider swimming goggles and a nose plug when you next go on a rampage with a sword :D-- 1234L5tuff, Jun 04 2003 Five seconds with 50,000 volts is gotta hurt whether you're dressed like a baking potato or not. One point that I didn't mention about the liguid charge tasers is that these devices use a backpack resevoir for the saline solution and supposedly hold much more charge.-- Tiger Lily, Jun 04 2003 I thought that the circuit a taser induces is between the two pins - is the circuit actually through the hapless victim to earth?-- Jinbish, Jun 04 2003 There might be a small leackage to earth, but the potential different is between the two pins of the taser. Its like a normal battery that you put in your remote control: if you attatched just one end of that to earth it wouldn't drain it.-- 1234L5tuff, Jun 04 2003 Point 3 is scary - but there is a ray of hope presented in point 4://The darts... will not...even pass through heavy cardboard.//
Maybe some kind of cardboard carapace-like suit is needed.-- Jinbish, Jun 04 2003 I wud like to see cardboard 1 to 2 inches thick!-- 1234L5tuff, Jun 04 2003 There's this pizza place round where I live...-- Jinbish, Jun 04 2003 Pizza won't work either.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 04 2003 //tell me if I'm missing something obvious in the nicest way possible//You have a problem if the foil is insulated from your body: capacitance. The outfit may develop a charge, and even collect static electricity during your ordinary nefarious activities. And if you touch anything, or if someone touches you, then *ZAP!!!* (technical term).If you'd like to use the outfit in this way to your advantage, you could be a super hero. You are vulnerable to humidity, however.-- Amos Kito, Jun 04 2003 Nah, these things use AC - you won't pick up a charge.
My concern is that defending against tasers is a little pointless: if you're the type of criminal who's going to go to some lengths to protect against police weapons, you're likely to be committing the type of crimes where they'll be coming at you with their 9mm's, not their tasers, surely?
If not, then incorporating a conducting layer into light body armor should do the trick.-- DrCurry, Jun 04 2003 My point is some suicidal maniac with a sword fools a police officer into thinking he can be taken down by a taser. He fires the taser, and then looses his head, along with the other officers who are ready to restrain him. In America, and most of the world, you would have 9mms all over the place, but in the UK where pistols are not standard issue (thank god - agunzagun) the officers might be forced to take the criminal down before proper armed response arrive which they would probably bring in as backup. Although I am just bullshitting here, I expect the taser would arrive along with the firearms, but you know what I'm getting at.
I know this is an unlikely scenario, but its not impossible that some person is trying a "death by cop" thing but wants to see how many officers he can take out first.
//incorporating a conducting layer into light body armor should do the trick.// - I was thinking this too, because then you don't even get the annoying wounds from the darts.-- 1234L5tuff, Jun 04 2003 So, if your attacker has a taser and a gun, you should pretend to be affected by the taser until the attacker is close enough that his gun can be neutralized.
Incidently, I always thought that a taser would be an ideal weapon for a mugger or kidnapper to use. A quick shot in the back, and there's no risk that the "victim" will be able to fight back effectively. So make sure to wear your tinfoil, especially when walking in an isolated area or after dark.-- scad mientist, Jun 04 2003 If you used a lead suit instead of a tinfoil suit, it would protect against tasers, and also Superman couldn't see your naughty bits.-- bungston, Jun 04 2003 The first thing a criminal needs to do is get use to being hit with a taser so its not a big surprize for him when he gets hit with it. The only way to get use to getting hit with a taser is to have your friend shoot you with the M26 Advanced taser everyday so you can get a good sence of what it fells like.
When you are about to do something inlegal that would end up with the cops shooting a taser at you, you need to put on one full layer of latex clothing then on top of that a 2 inch thinck layer of cardboard, and then a layer of tin foil. When the cops come at you and fire there tasers fall down and pretend to have been sucesfully tased then pull out the MX ANIMAL TASER and let them get to see what it fells like to be hit with a taser that is not designed for human use.-- ree3162003, Sep 27 2003 Large electromagnet worn on belt. Any and all electronics nearby get fried. Might work better. Would this affect tasers? Burn out the capacitors maybe?-- DesertFox, May 06 2004 A woven metal cloth would be better than foil. Foil would rip and wrinkle with wear. Police are using tasers to intimidate. You don't need to be a crook to get "tased". I would think shorting out the points with a wire mesh would pretty much eliminate it's ability to stun. I'm sure it would still tickle a little. I think this idea is worth a little testing in my garage.-- gougeeye, Jun 29 2007 random, halfbakery