Coroners create national database to track stun gun-related deaths

September 3, 2007
Stephen Janis, The Examiner

"The reluctance of some coroners to rule the devices as either the primary or contributing factor in deaths can be attributed in part to the threat of lawsuits," said Dr. Randy Hanzlick, chief medical examiner in Fulton County, Georgia, and one of the database’s primary architects. "There have been direct statements at our meeting by the manufacturers: 'You put that on the death certificate, and the company will sue you,'" he said. According to this article, Taser International, the predominant manufacturer of stun guns, did not dispute Hanzlick’s claims. Company spokesman Steve Tuttle is quoted as saying "We have held and will continue to hold medical examiners responsible for any untrue statements."

The creation of this database is the best news I've heard in a very long time. I have long held that the key to taser-related deaths lies in a complete analysis of *all* of these deaths. For too long, each individual death has been looked at in isolation and it is high time that the data from all of them be analyzed to determine which common threads exist beyond the fact of taser use. The TRUTH is what we're MOST interested in and coroners must be able to seek the truth without interference or fear of legal reprisal from the manufacturer.