POPPAJOHNS' ALL STUN GUNS PAGE
De Old Effo says: You can figure out which stun gun you like from here
and go straight to it using the navigation links on this page

OK, this page is for those who take self defense seriously so let's get on this bird and ride. Poppajohns' first rules of personal security are:

Always carry personal protection, be aware and have a plan.

To most people personal defense is just that personal. Should you personally decide to carry a stun gun, then this page is for you.

The traditional stun gun has two portruding electrodes (positive and negative) the stun gun sets up an electrical circuit so that current will pass between the electrodes when the stun gun is activated, real basic.

The early models are typically larger, powered by nine volt alkaline batteries and have longer portruding electrodes such as the Stun Monster 625,000 volt Stun Gun. Some of us (including Poppajohn) prefer these. Most of what we may term police stun guns are these exact same items. The later models use three volt lithium camera batteries such as the Stun Master Hot Shot. This allows them to be constructed on a smaller frame like the Runts. This helps make them a lot more handy and easier to carry. Along with that they typically use smaller electrodes that lay flat across the front of the stun gun, there is no hard evidence that this makes them any less effective than the larger more portruding electrodes, it does however contribute to their being easier to carry. While the preceeding is true, De Old Effo still likes the protruding electrodes best cuz he thinks they make a better contact on the mook than the flat type.

Power from the batteries is passed through a coil (some use more than 1) where the voltage is increased to pretty much any level desired. The higher the voltage the easier it is for the charge to bridge the gap between electrodes and the more impressive the spark and electrical noise when testing the unit (scary) be that as it may the actual amperage ALL stun guns produce is somewhere between five and eleven milliamps of electrical energy, which quite simply isn't very much, having said that I still think that in love, war, hot rodding and self defense bigger is pretty much always better. De Old Effo feels the need to point out that test firing any stun gun he has ever seen for more than one second will void the warranty and probably cause damage to the unit . Civilian stun guns use high voltage (we carry a 1.2 million volt stun gun and even 3 million or over 4 million volt stun guns) at low wattage (7 to 14 watts) and miniscule amperage (around five to eleven miliamps) to temporarily disable an attacker for anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes relatively harmlessly. The units do tend to produce two small burn marks where the current enters and leaves the body. some of the most intimidating stun devices are the Stun Batons and the Telescopic Stun Baton this guy extends ftom 13 inches to 21.5 inches instantly while showing major sparking up and down the shaft. It's even kinda scary for the person holding it.

Stun weapons work by interfering with the communication signals within the nervous system of the target. Conventional stun systems primarily effect the sensory nervous system. Something like static on the communication lines between the brain and the body and in so doing they interfere with the human command and control systems. The overall effect is the muscles work spasmodically contracting and relaxing at a very high rate.

So thats how stun guns use high voltage and low amperage to temporarily disrupt human nervous systems and in so doing disable an attacker for several minutes. The stun gun does not rely on pain for results, though some do report feeling pain(don't tase me bro don't tase me). The energy stored in the gun is dumped into the attacker’s muscles causing them to do a great deal of work rapidly. This rapid work cycle pretty much instantly depletes the attacker’s blood sugar by converting it to lactic acid. Which means, he is unable to produce energy for his muscles and his body is unable to function properly. The stun gun also interrupts the tiny neurological impulses that control and direct voluntary muscle movement . When the attacker’s neuromuscular system is overwhelmed and controlled by the stun gun he loses his balance, you should then be prepared to catch your assailant and help him to the ground lest he be injured in the fall. The current is confined to the circuit set up between the two electrodes which means should the attacker be touching you it means nothing because the current will NOT pass to your body nor anything else that is not between those two electrodes! Normally a shock of 3 to 5 seconds is enough to place most any mook in the fetal position however, a small percentage of people with very high tolerance for electrical stimulation can fight through the effect, TASER® Devices including the new self defense TASER® C2™ use a higher wattage and a phased electrical charge to overcome this. They also give you a much larger comfort zone in that you can overpower your attacker at a distance albeit for more money. A pepper spray gun will also provide this, even more distance actually and for less, way less.

Some stun guns are built to resemble something other than a stun gun such as a cell phone or flashlight or some other unique design which is a really great idea and gives you a tactical advantage because since it looks harmless your would be attacker stays relaxed. Thats the real idea behind a cell phone stun gun, flashlight stun gun or what ever, to make it easier to surprise an attacker. Remember however the basic purpose of a stun gun, and all other non-lethal self defense products, is to give you time to escape. Use the stun gun, then head for safety. If you follow De Old Effo's preferences you hose him down with Wildfire before you go. But then, Don't stand around checking out the slobbering mook on the ground even though it's fun, clear the area.

Most women find that their hand will not fit most stun guns real well that's why Z-Force shapes their stun guns to better fit smaller hands. Poppajohn has plenty of opportunities for you to buy stun guns, so we don't sell them on this page. We won't try to tell you what the best stun gun is either, that's for you to decide just like whether you also wanna carry pepper spray or mace to give yourself a choice of non lethal weapons. De Old Effo naturally recommends carrying everything possible and using em all when necessary.

Here's a brief history of the stun gun.

After the first batteries were created in the late 1800's an inventor, John Burton from Wichita, Kansas applied for and received a patent for his "Electric Prod Pole", or an electric cattle prod. Burton's purpose for creating this was to assist driving cattle without damaging their hides.

The model was very simple but effective. It used a battery, a coil of wound wire, and two prongs, one positive and the other negative. The coil stepped up the voltage enough so that the current could penetrate an animal's hide and cause a localized shock. Within a couple of decades another patent was given for a very similar battery powered design that used a new method to hold the end-cap on and added an on/off switch.

In 1950 the electric cattle prod was used by most cowboys to move cattle up the chutes. I'm sure it wasn't long before one cowboy zapped another and a seed for another use was planted.

In 1933 a Cuban inventor named Cirilo Diaz developed a "Stun Glove" that he thought would help the police cope with unruly suspects and demonstrators.

But, it didn't catch on. In the early 1960s police used cattle prods to help control riots and civil rights protesters.

Then comes Jack Cover who invented the Taser. Educated as a nuclear physicist, Cover invested most of his career earning a living in aerospace and defense industries. He started to build the Taser in the 1960s because of a rash of airplane hijackings. Sky marshals began carrying pistols on commercial airliners to deter hijackers, but Cover saw the possible danger. If a bullet missed the hijacker and pierced the fuselage instead, the plane could crash.

He thought he could come up with a non-lethal way to stop hijackers.

In an interview with the Orange County Register in 1991 Cover said that he got the idea for the Taser after hearing about a man who was briefly immobilized by a fallen power line. He began experimenting in his garage and in the late 1960s developed a device that looked something like a flashlight but fired darts that transmitted an electrical charge. The darts had a range up to 15 feet.

He got the name for the device from one of his favorite childhood books, "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle." In the book, the Tom Swift invents a rifle that shoots out bolts of electricity. The story obviously continued to inspire Cover's creativity years later, when he thought of the name TASER as an acronym for "Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle." Cover added the middle initial "A" so the name would make more sense.

Since the 1960s the idea of a non-lethal, hand held personal protection device has inspired many styles such as lipstick stun guns, stun batons, flashlight stun guns, cell phone stun guns and other disguised stun gun devices.