T H U R S D AY, M A R C H 2 1 , 2 0 0 2

B ro t h e r s S t u n n e d b y T h e i r
N e w S u c c e s s i n TA S E R Tr a d e
Security: Since Sept. 11,
the weapons no longer
are just obscure law
enforcement devices.
United Airlines bought
1,300 units for its fleet.

By JULIE CART, TIMES
STAFF WRITER
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - If fear of domestic terrorism
threatens to transform America
into an armed camp, Tom Smith
and his brother want to be the
ones to arm it.
The Smiths run TASER
International,
the
world’s
leading manufacturer of stun
guns. The TASER® has in recent
days ceased to be an obscure
law enforcement device and is
poised to make it big, selling to
consumers and private security
companies, and now the airline
industry.
The brothers, after nearly
a decade of financial woes and
legal battles, are ready to cash
in. Sales since Sept. 11 have
increased 167%. The company
just filled an order for United
Airlines for 1,300 TASERs. The
carrier wants to place the stun
guns in the cockpits of its 600
jetliners. Over-the-counter sales
to the public are suddenly brisk,
and the company is planning its
first mass advertising campaign.
With few restrictions on their
sale, stun guns soon may become
for today’s security-conscious
citizens what pepper spray was
20 years ago.

Smith can hardly fathom
the company’s transformation.
“There were times we paid our
payroll on credit cards,” he said.
“And those were all maxed out.”
Smith and his brother Rick-both former medical students-picked up the shards of a
defunct business in 1993 and
began making TASERs after two
friends were shot to death in a
road rage incident. The murders
made them think about personal
safety for the first time.
The more they investigated,
the more clear it became that
there was a void in the market
for those who didn’t want to use
a firearm for self-defense. The
answer, they found, was a stun
gun, which subdues its target for
as long as 90 seconds by emitting
powerful electrical shocks that
overwhelm a person’s central
nervous system.
The Smiths decided to get
into the business. The first thing
they did was seek out the retired
NASA scientist who invented the
technology for the TASER in the
‘70s. The scientist, Jack Cover,
remembered a stun gun he had
read about in the Tom Swift
fantasy stories of his youth.
He even created the acronym
TASER from “Thomas A. Swift
Electrical Rifle.”
Rick Smith, newly graduated
from Harvard, paired with Cover
full time to update and refine
the technology. Tom Smith,
with an MBA from Northern
Arizona University, held down
a day job and at night worked on
structuring the company.
The first order of business

was to change the TASER’s
triggering mechanism. The
old model used gunpowder, so
it was classified as a firearm,
which required a license to buy-considered off-putting to some
consumers. To reach a broader
market, the Smiths adopted a
new system using compressed
gas.
That accomplished, the
brothers hired an electronic
engineer and gave him the task
of designing a prototype. It took
a year.
Looking much like a
conventional
handgun,
the
barrel of a TASER is fitted with
a special cartridge. When the
trigger is pulled, compressed
nitrogen propels two metal darts
at 100 mph. Once attached to
the target, the probes send out
an electrical charge that the

company says penetrates up to 2
inches of clothing or padding.
The TASER incapacitates
a person by emitting pulses of
electricity--50,000
volts--that
override the person’s central
nervous system. The shocks are
discharged in extremely short
bursts and last a total of about
five seconds. Someone subdued
by a stun gun falls to the ground,
muscles convulsing, with no
body control.
While there are a handful
of companies around the world
that make stun guns, each uses
unique technology.
During development of the
TASER, money was streaming
out of the company and none
was coming in. The investors-the Smith brothers, their father
and his friend--were taking a
beating.

TASER International is the leading maker of stun guns such as
the one pictured. Sales have increased 167% since Sept. 11.

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,_=~_====.=.=;.;;;_=_==",.;;;_=;;;_=---._,-_.“From 1993 to 2001, we
only had two months where
we had the end-of-the-month
payroll covered at the start of
the month,” said Tom Smith,
34. “I can tell you, that’s a tough
way to live.”
Just about the time the
company and its new product
were ready to enter the allimportant law enforcement
market in 1995, the Smiths hit a
snag. TASER International and
another company, TASERtron,
had licensing agreements with
Cover, who holds patents on
much of the technology.
The TASERtron company
believed it had secured exclusive
rights to market its product
to law enforcement and the
military. TASER International
believed it had an unrestricted
license to sell to anyone.
TASERtron filed suit. Smith
said he didn’t have enough
money to fight back, leading

the two companies to agree that
TASER International would stay
out of the law enforcement and
military market until February
1998.
“We didn’t worry too
much because we thought the
consumer market would be
pretty good,” Smith said.
Their early, low-power
model, Air TASER, was sold
at stores such as the Sharper
Image. But Smith discovered
that consumers would not buy
TASERs until they were used
and endorsed by police officers.
Shut out of the market that
would give it credibility, the
company foundered. To save
money, the Smiths moved
manufacturing to Mexico, and
cut their work force from 80
people to 12.
In the midst of that
financial morass, the Smiths
made what proved to be a
disastrous decision: producing

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the Auto TASER, essentially
an electrified “Club” steering
wheel lock.
“No one bought it,” Smith
said, still mystified. “My brother
started calling it the Bearded
Lady: Everyone wanted to look
at it and no one would take it
home.”
Three times the company
appeared
headed
into
bankruptcy.
Then, as if to confirm the
brothers’ rotten timing, just
as they prepared to take the
company public two years ago,
the bottom fell out of the dotcom world and venture capital
dried up overnight.
“We were meeting with
people just as Nasdaq fell. We
had to pull brokers from under
desks to talk to us,” Smith said.
Still,
they
prevailed.
TASER’s stock rose 180% in its
first year. This week, it surged
13% after an analyst touted

the company in a business
publication.
Smith said the attention from
United’s purchase has caused
the company to accelerate
plans to move strongly into
the consumer market. Now
available in fewer than 100
stores nationwide, the company
expects TASERs to be sold in an
additional 500 stores by the end
of the year.
The consumer model costs
about $120; the law enforcement
model about $600.
TASERs are standard issue
for more than 1,000 police
departments around the country,
and the Smiths now dominate
the market they once were
forbidden to explore.
“After Sept. 11, the phones
have been ringing off the hook,”
said Jason Woodside, owner of
the International Spy Shop in
San Francisco, which sells two
models of TASERs. “A lot of
guys buy them for their wives
before they go on trips. I’ve sold
a few to jewelry store owners.
For people into self-defense
who are not comfortable killing
people, this is the thing.”
From
a
nondescript
suburban industrial park here,
the 1-pound weapons are
shipped to customers in 60
countries. The Smiths’ work
force, made up entirely of
Serbian war refugees relocated
here by church groups, each day
turns out about 150 TASERs
and thousands of rounds of
ammunition cartridges.
The company projects record
sales of about $12 million this
year.
“We knew there was a
market out there,” Smith said.
“There were many nights when
Rick and I were here, filling
orders at midnight and drinking
beers, saying, ‘What are we
doing?’ There were some dark
days. I guess it’s all been worth
it.”

TASER® is a registered trademark of TASER International, Inc.