Taser-related deaths are on the rise in Canada. On October 14, Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver International Airport in one such incident. With this in mind, the Straight set out to learn how to best protect one’s self from a stun gun attack.

“I always say, if you can avoid violence, do it,” said Norm Bettencourt, founder of Tact Self Defence. But, he added, if someone is intent on using a stun gun, “I just control the hand that is holding that weapon and try to disarm them.”

Bettencourt has been teaching self defence in Vancouver for ten years. He told the Straight that once a person has been shot by a stun gun, there is little chance that they will be able to get away.

Camil Dubuc, president of Genesis Security, argued that a more passive approach was preferable.

“You must freeze,” Deubuc said. “Don’t move your head, don’t move your shoulders, don’t make any motion, talk very slowly.” He said that it was those actions that will make a person with a weapon react.

Dubuc noted that when faced with a stun gun, it is more than the immediate danger of electric shock that a person must think about. “It is about what they are going to do with you after,” he said.

“Lets say you get tasered, and then for 30 seconds or one minute, you are out. In thirty seconds, someone can come and kick you in the face, probably 20 times.”

Both Bettencourt and Dubuc claimed that body armor, such as a bullet proof vest, would limit the effectiveness of a stun gun-shot to the chest. But, they noted, the rest of your body is still left susceptible to attack.