The lemonade is homemade, the canapes piled high and the 50,000-volt stun-gun available in four designer colors. Welcome to the Taser party -- "having the girls round," Arizona-style. Modeled on the innocent Tupperware party, it's a chance to meet, gossip and try out weaponry illegal in seven US states.
Ever since political pundits identified the "security mom" -- the homemaker concerned about safety, local and national -- a new market for self-defense has opened up.
Quick to cash in on these fears is Taser International, which launched its C2 model in the summer. Sold for US$299, it's the size of an iPhone and available in black pearl, titanium silver, electric blue and -- the party bestseller -- metallic pink.
Working alone as an estate agent in the US' third most dangerous state, Caily Scheur wanted to protect herself; she didn't want a gun, afraid the weapon would be used against her. Then she discovered the C2.
"It's for a serious purpose, but it's fashionable as well," she said.
She began hosting parties a month ago after interested neighbors approached her at her son's little league games.
The parties are attended by everyone from young professionals to pensioners, eager to learn more about self-protection and to try the Taser on a cardboard cutout. For obvious reasons, alcohol -- the traditional fuel of Tupperware parties -- is banned.
The events are currently held only in Arizona, but growing interest means that Taser parties will come to six more states by March and the other 36 that allow the devices by the end of next year.
But it will take more than a woman's touch to improve the Taser's image. In September a student who heckled John Kerry was stunned by police in an incident that spawned T-shirts and parodies (catchphrase "Don't Tase me, bro").
Although Scheur insists Tasers aren't fatal -- merely packing "one heck of a wallop" -- Amnesty International says 200 people have died in the US since 2001 after being "Tased."
While Taser International diversifies at home, the British police have placed another order -- although they remain illegal for civilians, meaning Taser parties won't be coming to a street near you.
Or perhaps it's just a matter of time; it took nine years for Tupperware parties to cross the Atlantic.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS