Types of Stun Guns

Stun Gun - Photo: Flickr

There are many types of stun guns on the market today. Which one you choose depends on what you feel comfortable with and which one best suits you.

Standard stun guns are fairly simple. They are about the size of a flashlight and work on a single 9-volt battery. This type of stun gun gets its electric supply from the battery and it is distributed to the various electrical components. The standard type of stun gun has small electrodes at the end where the current is released.

Cattle prods are similar to stun guns. They use an electrical current that works off the two electrodes on the end. But the cattle prod serves a different function.

A cattle prod only causes pain, the charge not meant to disrupt the nervous system but to get the person or the animal moving. The main difference is in voltage. The voltage in a cattle prod is lower, only meaning to shock instead of stun.

Another variation is the taser gun. It still basically works the same way, but instead, the electrodes are not permanently joined to the housing. They are positioned at the end of conductive wires.

Pulling the trigger releases the electrode, shooting at a distance into the target, the wires still attached to the housing. The electrodes have small barbs, which grip on an attackers clothes. The current travels down the wire and into the attacker, stunning him the same way. The main advantage to this is that the attacker can be kept at a distance, anywhere from 15-20 feet.

---

---