Phasers for self-defense?

I'm serious.

Really.

Suppose there existed a weapon like the Star Trek phaser set to stun. Imagine you could reliably render anyone unconscious with one shot. Would that be good or bad?

It seems all upside and no downside. But if you think a little, you find things like this:

A predator, sexual or otherwise, could shoot you with a phaser at a distance and render you harmless. Then he could do whatever the hell he wanted to you.

A criminal with, say, a knife or a crowbar, might not be deterred as he would facing a deadly weapon like a regular gun. A gun can easily kill him. A phaser cannot kill him at all. So he can come at you without much fear of harm. And if you miss, it's lights out for you.

In a hostage situation, if the police were armed with phasers but the criminal have deadly weapons, there would be little incentive to negotiate. The best you could get if you surrender is nearly the worse you can get if you carry out your scheme. Why not try?

Like that.

Crime would shoot up, probably for the same reasons that you aren't allowed to have a taser in some states.

Right now, with a gun, your choices when committing a crime are to threaten them and hope they believe you, or shoot them. If you shoot them, and eventually get caught, you are in a lot more trouble than if you didn't shoot. That makes the threat of shooting someone less effective, and harder to perpetrate your crime, and riskier to yourself.

With a phaser you just go ahead and shoot. Knock them out, no one dies, no assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder charges. No having to threaten someone to stand still. Just phaser them. It would be so easy and so consequence-free, everybody would do it, and it will make perpetrating the crime that much easier.

As it is now, tasers can shoot out and get someone, albeit with wires attached. Will they become wireless? That does not seem impossible to me at all. Then you would have your phaser, sort of, quite a bit less capable and less cool too.

The question reminds me of a kid I was sort of an Uncle to for quite a while, 30 some odd years ago, who had just learned about tranquilizer darts. He frequently would see this situation and that situation we would see on TV, where maybe the police shot somebody, and exclaim that they could have just used a tranquilizer gun!

Quote: Nareed

I'm serious.
Really.

So was the young lady who walked through SOMA South of Mission Area in San Francisco carrying a florescent light bulb and telling trouble makers to beware her Light Saber.