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The Taser Party: Chicks Dig It

Self-defense-minded women seek something a little more shocking
By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 6, 2008 2:41 PM CST
The Taser Party: Chicks Dig It
Dana Leigh Shafman, center, of Shieldher, Inc., talks to attendees about personal safety at a Taser Party Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007 in Mesa, Ariz. Shafman is an independent weapons dealer who's been selling Tasers the way her mother's generation sold plastic food storage containers. (AP Photo/Ross...   (Associated Press)

At-home female entrepreneurs are ditching Mary Kay for Tasers, but they're keeping the pink. Taser International is marketing its user-friendly C2 "personal protector" to the public, and women with an interest in self-defense are holding independent Taser parties in states where the stun gun is legal. "It's a girl power kind of thing," said one woman. Critics, however, aren't so sure.

The company has had a rough time countering bad press, but in 2007 Taser stock climbed from $7.44 to $19.36 a share, the AP reports. Still, living-room Taser trials are making some organizations nervous. "We want to stop violence against women. But we also want to ensure that Tasers don't end up causing it, too," said an Amnesty International spokeswoman. (More Taser stories.)

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