How effective is it? – Curious case puts the taser to the test

It was a court story in Vienna that was astonishing. A really bad stalker broke into the lover’s apartment, the mother alerted the police, who called WEGA for support. For the man was armed with a samurai sword and a juice. “Everything was so tight,” the WEGA man described in court – it was decided to use the taser, which would make the man unable to fight with electric shock.

But he didn’t respond. At least not as intended. “He cramped a bit, went to the kitchen, pulled out the taser arrow – and attacked us again,” the officer said. A second “shot” with the taser didn’t do much either.

Muscles used to electrical stimuli
The supposed solution to the riddle: The defendant regularly did EMS training – the special training with electricity that builds muscle. The “Krone” spoke with Andreas Spiegl, a certified EMS trainer from Vienna-Penzing. And he confirmed: “Yes, if the man exercises regularly, then his muscles are used to electrical stimuli.” And the professional knows: “If I also work actively, with body tension, then the training device has a harder time and has to have a stronger impulse. And probably also a taser.”

But there are definitely people who are “more resistant to electricity”, especially men: “Their skin is firmer, hornier. It also depends on the fluid balance of the body. The higher, the better the current conducts,” Spiegl continues.

The Ministry of the Interior attributed the fact that the taser did not work in this case to another circumstance: for the taser to work fully, the two fired electrodes must be at least 25 centimeters apart. That shouldn’t have been the case here. The supervisor excludes a training effect.