Almanac: Inventor of the Taser
And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac: February 7th, 2009, seven years ago today ... the day aerospace scientist Jack Cover died at the age of 88.
Even if you don't know his name, you surely know the name of his invention. It's an acronym inspired by the science fiction story, "Tom Swift And His Electric Rifle," which (with a tweak) becomes the word TASER.
The Taser applies an electric shock in one of two ways: either through direct contact with the skin; or, at a distance, through a pair of wired darts fired by compressed air.
Rick Smith and his brother, Tom, who founded Taser International in 1993 after acquiring the rights to Cover's invention, talked to David Martin for a "60 Minutes" story back in 2011: "The idea of using electricity to incapacitate at its core is, frankly, a beautiful and simplistic idea."
They even videotaped the Taser tests they did on themselves.
Videos of Taser use on unwilling subjects have become YouTube sensations, including this one of a protestor at a John Kerry event at the University of Florida in 2007:
And the controversy goes on.
Amnesty International has recorded well over 500 deaths from U.S. police Taser use since 2001 ... a figure the manufacturer and its defenders vigorously dispute.
They argue that most of the deaths can be blamed on other causes, such as drug use or other factors.
And, with very rare exceptions, lawsuits brought by Taser victims or their families lose in court.
With police body cameras now an expanding part of its product line, Taser International reported some $50 million in sales for the third quarter of last year.
As co-founder Tom Smith told "60 Minutes" back in 2011: "We believe in what we are doing. We have changed the world. Very few people can say that."
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