A new medical study has found that electrical shock delivered to the chest by a Taser or stun gun - used by over 16,700 law enforcement agencies in 107 countries - can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death. While Amnesty International and other groups have long cited the dangers of tasing, the study in the journal Circulation is the first to appear in a peer-reviewed publication. It looked at the cases of eight people who went into cardiac arrest after being shocked by a Taser X26 fired at a distance. Seven died.

“This is no longer arguable,” said Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist and director of the electrophysiology laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. “This is a scientific fact. The national debate should now center on whether the risk of sudden death with Tasers is low enough to warrant widespread use by law enforcement.”