I’m not really sure what’s more ridiculous: Taser parties (a lá Tupperware parties), or Amnesty International’s position on the non-lethal devices.
Because of safety concerns and potential for abuse, we do not believe Tasers should ever be used as a low or medium level force option by police officers. Nor should they be permitted for sale to the general public.
As soon as everyone gets a 24/7 armed bodyguard contingent from AI, they can then take positions like this with some credibility. AI does not have the right to declare that I don’t have the right to defend my family and myself with force I deem appropriate for the situation.
AI needs to stop picking the low-hanging fruit in the western world and concentrate fully on the serious problems in places like Darfur, Zimbabwe, Iran, and North Korea before it moves on to other slightly less serious problem areas like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China.
*Update* From Hobbes’ The Leviathan:
And therefore there be some rights which no man can be understood by any words, or other signs, to have abandoned or transferred. . . A covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void.