History
The company was founded in 1991 (under the name Air Taser, Inc.) by brothers Rick and Tom Smith. The Smiths were upset when two of Rick's former teammates in high school were murdered in a road rage incident in a resort parking lot in Scottsdale. In 1993, they began working with Jack Cover on a non-lethal weapon; eventually Cover first developed an early version of the Taser.
TASER takes its name after a fictional weapon: Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.
In June 1994, a non-firearm version of the Taser was developed, allowing it to bypass federal and state laws that only apply to firearms, and a tracking system (the "anti-felon identification" or "AFID" system) was created. This enables the Taser to disperse confetti with serial numbers when it is fired and links the specific Taser to the scene where it is used.
In 1998, the company adopted its current name, intending to emphasize the company's international expansion. In the same year, the company began marketing the weapon to law enforcement agencies and police departments, in addition to the private buyers who had bought Tasers for personal self-protection in prior years.
In 2001, TASER International developed its "Advanced Taser Electro-Muscular Disruption" system. In May 2001, they filed for an initial public offering and began trading NASDAQ under the stock symbol TASR. In May 2003, the company released its new Taser X26 model.
Read more about this topic: Taser International
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