[MotherBear]

Laser painting sounds a lot more accurate than aiming with a gun.  At least you can see where the probes will hit in the event the weapon has to be fired.

Tasers drawn 13 times since introduction
02 October 2006

Police have drawn Tasers twice more in the last 10 days, bringing the total number of times they have been used to 13.
About 180 police in greater Auckland and Wellington were trained to use Tasers before they were officially added to the police arsenal on September 1, despite protests from some politicians and anti-Taser groups.

Police have fired the Taser once, used laser painting – highlighting the target with a red dot – nine times and drawn the stun guns three times.

In most of the incidents in question there were weapons or suspected weapons involved, police said. In the latest incidents, a Taser was drawn in New Lynn to catch an offender who had threatened a woman with a knife on September 20.

Last Wednesday police drew a Taser and laser painted a man armed with a knife who had threatened to kill himself in Counties Manakau.

The incident where a Taser was discharged involved the arrest of an 18-year-old man in Western Springs on September 8. Police said the man suffered minor lacerations from the probe contact and no injuries when he fell. He was later charged with assault with a weapon, threatening to kill, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a knife.

Police have defended the use of Tasers, describing them as an important crime-fighting tool amidst growing violence, but critics have called for them to be banned.

- NZPA