WEBVTT - Taser Incorporated | Chapter 1 - Whips, Poles, and Chains 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:08.440 You're right where you are, We'll throw you a gun. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.680 Gun violence is surging across the US. 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:27.920 So far there is a soon with a gun. 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:30.200 What would it be like to live in a world 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:45.560 where none of this is possible? One man had a vision, 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:48.800 a vision of a new reality. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.000 The whole reason we started this company is we don't 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:53.360 get people stop killing each other. 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:54.600 And in order to. 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.440 Do that, he was going to make it happen with 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:57.160 an invention. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:04.120 Technology has the power to elevate us. It can bring 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.080 out the best in humanity. It makes the impossible possible. 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:12.120 It can make dreams real. It can make tomorrow different 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.639 than yesterday. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.839 Rick Smith is building this new reality in a real place. 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.840 I visited the Space Age headquarters, rising up from the 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.200 Arizona Desert. My tour guide put his eye up to 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:32.640 a retinal scanner to get me into the building. The 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.240 steel doors retracted slowly, like we were entering a vault. 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.000 I walked through a wide hallway and saw catwalks criss 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:45.000 crossing above me. Employees in glass conference rooms drew equations 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.840 on the windows. I watched as an assembly line of 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:53.320 workers built this future weapon called a taser. Electricity buzzed 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.400 through the air. It felt like science fiction, but they 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.880 were really doing it. I was in side this world. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.520 I could see what this new technology could be capable of, 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:14.519 and I wanted Rick's stream to be real. This is absolute. 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:20.280 Season one, Taser incorporated a story about unchecked power. I'm 0:02:20.360 --> 0:03:12.320 Nick Beredini. Episode one whips, Poles and Chains. I know 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.359 a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.640 have you ever fired your gun? Rick Smith in his 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.679 space age outpost was trying to build a world where 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.160 the answer would always be no. But if you were 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.760 a cop before that, like my friend Matt Masters, you 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.280 were skeptical. Matt had been trained. If you think your 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.120 life is in danger, shoot. 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.520 Door comes flying open and dude's running out. He's got 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.480 the cash register in one hand and a gun in 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.000 the other, and I'm like, robbery, robberie robbery. So we 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.120 bail out of our car in the middle street. I 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:52.120 think the kid just didn't even like realize that the 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.520 cops were there. So as he's running, he turned like, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.800 oh shit kind of thing. The gun was pointed at 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.400 me at that point I just reacted, and I mean 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.760 he wasn't stopping, and I opened fire on him. I 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:10.480 shot shot him like five times, and so he went 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.920 down right there and dropped the cash register, dropped the gun. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:17.880 I'm standing in the street, put out on the radio. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.839 Shots fired, you know, also involved shooting whatever. Whatever I said. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.840 It wasn't until you rolled him over that you realized 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.760 how young he was, right, Yeah, yeah, no, what did 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:30.800 he look like? He looked like he looked like he 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.120 was a fourteen fifteen year old kid. You know what 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:34.880 did that feel like? 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:36.720 Yeah? 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:37.440 It bothered me. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.200 You know, I remember the kid looking up at me 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:40.840 and he's like. 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:46.719 You shot me. Matt says he did what he was 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.400 trained to do, aim for the chest, but he also 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.920 did what a lot of cops do under pressure. He missed. 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.359 Cops call it dipping. He told me he didn't mean to, 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.000 but he lowered his arm hit the kid's legs. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:03.599 I was just glad that I didn't killing because I 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.000 think that would have been a different I think that 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.160 would have been different emotions that I would have had 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.880 to process. Ended up being a BB gun, there's a 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.520 replica that look like a real gun. There's no way 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:17.160 I would have been able to know that that was 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.239 a BB gun. But I don't know that I needed 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.320 to shooting. So I think that part kind of bothers 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.960 me a little bit, like knowing that I didn't have 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:28.560 to shoot him. 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.760 Why does an officer ever need to use lethal force? 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.320 Police don't use lethal force because it's lethal. They use 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.560 it because it's reliable. It's the most effective way to 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:44.320 stop a threat. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.200 In a marketing video from twenty twenty three, Rick Smith 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.000 tells us not anymore. He shows us the newest Taser, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.120 a black and yellow gun shaped device. Instead of one barrel, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.240 it has ten holes to shoot out ten little darts. 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.440 The darts are attached to electrified copper wires, so when 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.479 they shoot out and puncture your skin, the current makes 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:13.200 your muscles lock up. You can't move, but when it's over, 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:15.000 you can get right back up. 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.520 I feel a sense of true hope watching this technology 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.240 be adopted, and I can't wait to see where the 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:26.760 coming years will take us. 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.080 Walking through the Taser headquarters blew me away. While I 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.240 was there, I sat down with a VP and he 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.159 told me how proud he was to work for the 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.960 company Tasers saving lives. That's the business that we're in. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.480 We're protecting the truth and we're protecting lives. 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:46.000 I was impressed. As I walked back through the steel 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.039 double doors and into the desert that day, I also 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:54.360 wondered was what he said too good to be true? 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.160 I threw myself in a half decade into that question. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.960 I even made a movie about what I found. That's 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.600 how I met Officer Matt Masters. I was answering questions 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.800 on Reddit about the movie. He left me a comment, Hello, Nick, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.040 I was thrust into the reality of tasers just over 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.320 a year ago. I didn't see it at first. I 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.720 only caught it because a friend asked later if I'd 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.440 talked to this guy Matt yet. When I finally met him, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.480 he'd been a cop for nineteen years. Crew cut, blue eyes, 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.880 tattoo of an archangel slicing a demon's neck. He opened 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.400 up right away. He laughed a lot, especially when he 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.840 was talking about something that might make him cry. We 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.440 had dinner at a restaurant and we talked for hours. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.720 Matt's wife, Stacy was there too, dark straight hair, dark 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:50.040 brown eyes, feather tattoo. She's part Shawnee and sometimes wears 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:54.560 a t shirt that says no More Stolen Sisters. We 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.080 started talking because Matt and Stacy were trying to make 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:58.760 sense of something that happened to them. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.400 Fucking just get out out right now. 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:07.480 Out of the car, Out of the car. Taylor appointment 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.800 on the ground, out of the car, on the ground, 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.560 on the ground. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.880 The taser changed everything for cops, changed everything for math too. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.760 There was a time when police didn't use tasers, and 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.200 I wanted to know how I had become so popular 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.320 with cops. So I went to meet a former police 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.600 officer who was the very first in the country to 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:08.800 arm his department with tasers. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.000 Yeah, people have this idea, ye know. Oh wow, that'd 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.559 be a police officer, you know, how exciting or how 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:17.680 dangerous or whatever. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.440 Greg Meyer is retired now, but he was a cop 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.160 with the Los Angeles Police Department back in the seventies. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.040 I always say, well, it's a fun job, but somebody 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:28.760 has to do it. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.600 I was honestly scared to call him at first. Everything 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.400 I knew about the LAPD came from TV police chases 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.600 and movies like Training Day. I was twenty three and 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.080 reporting on small town cops in mid Missouri. I wasn't 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.280 sure a retired captain from the LAPD would want to 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.560 give some kid journalist a history lesson how'd you guys 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.200 kind of get started getting getting tisgered on the street 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.600 from there. But Captain Meyer loves history. 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.160 LAPD had looked at the taser three or four years. 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.760 Greg told me the story of how why he brought 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.720 tasers to the LAPD like he was my grandpa telling 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:04.520 me about the war. 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.679 So in January third of nineteen seventy nine, in South 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.679 Los Angeles there was a very tragic police shooting. 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.199 A widowed mom named Ula Love was killed by police. 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:17.520 It was all over the news. 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:18.680 On Focus tonight. 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.720 Police brutality a topic of intense national interest nowadays because 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.199 last January a black woman named Ula Love was shot 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:27.280 by two policemen. 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.520 She threatened the officers with a knife. 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.240 They fired twelve times and killed her. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.439 Ula Love hadn't paid her gas bill, and when the 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.600 collector came, she threatened him with a shovel. When he 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.520 called the cops, Ula Love threatened them with a knife. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.000 They could have subdued this lady without using the weapons 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.120 that they used. They could have took her alive plant simple. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:58.960 Even the mayor made a statement. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.120 There is a WHI I'd spread feeling which I share 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.200 that the shooting might have been avoided. 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.440 That Ula Love shooting put the city of Los Angeles 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.400 on edge and set the LAPD on a mission. 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.800 The boss has decided, we got to find a better way, 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.559 and that's how I ended up with the Non Lethal 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:22.560 Weapons Project. 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.160 The department started looking for a non lethal weapon that 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.040 could stop a shooting before it happened. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:30.320 I had no idea that was going to become my 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:34.040 life's work. I actually wrote an article forty years ago 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.520 or so, the title of which was Tasers, tear gas, whips, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.040 poles and chains your non lethal weapons Alternatives. And that 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.240 came about because I was given carte blanche, look at 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.400 everything that we could that's out there. 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.080 Greg told me the LAPD actually sent out a survey 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.520 to the fifty biggest police departments in the US. They 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.720 were asking, how do you stop someone with hurting them? 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:05.760 What do you guys use besides you know, the baton 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.480 and the handgun and the SAP and the handcuffs to 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:11.480 subdue people. 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.640 But cops everywhere were kind of in the same boat. 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.800 Everything they could use was pretty brutal. Like if you 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.360 don't know what a SAP is, it's basically a leather 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.120 club with a lead ball at the end of it. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.160 It can cause a ripping laceration to the face. Sounds 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.600 like something from Bravehearder Game of Thrones. Greg told me 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:36.040 he was so stuck he even ran ads in the newspaper. 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.600 And so people would write us letters. Doctors would write 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.280 us letters. People make phone calls to the office making 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:45.480 the suggestion, and. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.839 When they say there's no bad ideas in a brainstorm. 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.440 Whips, poles and chains. I'm not kidding. We actually had 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.320 a guy in Australia say that we should use bull 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.360 whips on people because that's what they use. And it's 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:04.079 like what several people, including some doctors wrote in that 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.680 we should try tranquilizer guns, like they tranquilize animals with 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.079 little drug cocktails. So I actually spent a day out 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.360 at the Los Angeles Zoo with the head veterinarian at 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.560 the zoo. Okay cool, except what he told me was, yeah, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.480 the media never seems to find out the animal would 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.040 die half the time. So we kind of blew by that. 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:31.040 One doesn't scream LAPD a more humane way of policing. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.640 But Greg didn't give up. He looked into a metal 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.240 chain hooked up to a seven foot shoust. Honestly, I 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.480 can't believe he looked into that one. It has chain 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.319 in the name, Greg, it. 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.120 Was called an action control chain, and you would try 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.640 to wrap the person up with that and then knock 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.360 them down with a big long, six or seven foot 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.280 baton and then get them handcuffed. And it's like, yeah, okay, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.280 we didn't have a lot of luck with that. 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.280 And then he considered they're a giant fishing net. 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:05.800 Now the guy's all wrapped up, and then they get 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.840 him into the station and behind closed doors, get the 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:10.920 net off, and then the fight would be on. 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.920 There was pepper spray, but even the environmentalists got in 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:15.200 the way. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.640 The state of California did not allow pepper spray. It 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.360 was banned. The state Department of Health Services said, no, 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.000 we don't want the pepper spray. We're not sure what 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:30.120 effect it would have on the ozone layer. So we're 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.720 out there kicking people with combat boots and beating them 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.800 with metal pipes and we can't use pepper spray because 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.800 they're worried about the ozone layer. It was nuts. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.440 And then Greg found this news clip about a former 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.880 NASA scientist working on some kind of electric gun. This 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.240 wasn't Rick Smith, it was before his time. The guy 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.880 in the clip was named Jack Kover got. 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.320 Her a new space age weapon that stuns but does 0:14:59.360 --> 0:14:59.840 not kill. 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.520 I picked up the phone and I called Jack Kover, 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.880 who was the taser inventor. His little factory was here 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:12.360 in southern California, in the city of Industry, and I 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.800 went out there and met him. Jack was a very 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.640 impressive guy. Jack had been a World War two airplane 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:25.080 test pilot, okay, and he was part of the Apollo 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:26.840 moon landing program. 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.120 Jack explained the concept to Greg. 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.560 I remember he asked me. He said, Greg, did you 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.240 ever work on a car? Did you ever do it 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.080 tune up on a car? And did you ever like 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.560 you know, did you ever touch the distributor cap and 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.080 get a short circuit through your body? And I go, yeah, 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.240 that happened. That happened once, he says, But it didn't 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.200 kill you, right, No, but it really startled you, right 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:53.400 And I go, well, yeah. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.960 Jack showed Greg a prototype and he was sold. Soon 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.160 the laped had a few hundred tasers. The concept of 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.920 the taser was so good, but they weren't reliable. They 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.720 were shaped like a flashlight, hard to hold and hard 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.000 to aim. Plus they were big and bulky. Some cops 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.359 had to keep them in the trunks of their squad cars. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.760 But the biggest problem was that a lot of times 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.640 they just didn't have enough power to stop an assailant, 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.760 which of course made the news. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.720 Officers trying to take a man into custody, they used 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:29.400 a taser. 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.360 The tasers should have dropped him. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.320 Long enough for the officers to take control. 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:36.880 It didn't stun guns to tasers. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.119 They can be effective, but have never been totally reliable 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.880 against focused, combative attackers. 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.440 It just wasn't ready for prime time. 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:54.040 Then the taser was featured in primetime in March of 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.080 nineteen ninety one. The world watched as three LAPD officers 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.480 beat Rodney King. While many people were appalled to see 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.800 police nearly beat a black man to death, lots of 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.760 cops noticed something else too. The LAPD had tried to 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.919 fire the taser twice before the brutality began, two taser 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.560 shots that failed to keep King on the ground before 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:21.880 the other officers could put him in handcuffs. Greg moved 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.280 on from tasers, The weapons stayed on the fringe of 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:29.280 law enforcement until a bright young man from Scottsdale, Arizona, 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:41.160 had an idea. At the same time as Rodney King 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.840 was in the news. Rick Smith, the guy who had 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.840 changed tasers forever, had just graduated from Harvard. He was 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.400 getting his MBA, and he'd grown up watching his dad 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.919 try out business after business. Rick told the story to 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:55.760 my colleague Matt Stroud a few years ago. 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.960 He started a restaurant at one point failed bottom batical 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:00.520 distribution business fail. 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.879 Finally Rick's dad got in on the ground floor of 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.640 a Silicon Valley startup and made millions. 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:08.879 And you know, it was pretty cool, Like dad went 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.720 from struggling and then they's buying a Ferrari. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.199 Rick says he made up his mind that by the 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:16.959 time he finished business school, he wanted to start his 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.159 own company. He just didn't know what kind yet. And 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.119 then he heard some news from back home in Scottsdale, Arizona. 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.240 Two guys he knew from playing high school football, Todd 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.359 and Corey, had gone speeding down Scottsdale Road in a 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.800 white Chevy Camaro and cut off a guy driving a 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:33.560 Honda a Cord. 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.560 They don't go to a party on a Friday or 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.600 Saturday night, and this guy follows him and they probably 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.760 got out of their car. There's yelling, there's tempers. This 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.720 other guy sees two big guys. He takes a guy 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:47.600 out in the glovebox, and he ends up shooting and 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:48.359 killing them both. 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:55.640 Todd and Corey's death changed Rick's life. Rick was ambitious. 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.480 He didn't want to leave school and just get a job. 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.479 He wanted to do something big, and this shooting started 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.680 making him think about the scale of gun violence in 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.600 the US. How many thousands of people are killed by 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.080 guns every year. He wanted to do something about it. 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.040 Rick had heard of a taser. He'd seen it in 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.960 movies like The Enforcer, and he was a Star Trek fan. 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.880 Captain Kirk didn't have a gun. He had a phaser, 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:26.760 a weapon that stuns but doesn't kill. Rick didn't understand 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:31.840 why wasn't the taser already a smashing success. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.159 I'm convinced there will come a day with the idea 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.840 of blowing holes in people is going to seem horrific 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.760 and outdated. I think, yes, Pa, we can take some 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.200 inspiration from science fiction. Right, How bizarre were to look 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.320 at Captain Kirk whipped out a glock and blew a 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:47.640 hole in a Clayton Right. 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.040 Rick says, he saw the patent for the taser was 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:54.479 owned by a guy named Jack Kover, and Rick wanted in. 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.600 He convinced his dad to put up some money, and 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.680 he took his parents' camper two hours south of childhood 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.560 home to park it in Jack's driveway. They were kind 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.119 of an odd couple. Rick was the young and ambitious businessman, 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.040 Jack was the crotchety old scientist ready to give the 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.480 taser one last try. They bought parts at the local 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.920 hardware store and got to work in Jack's garage. Within 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.800 a few months, they had built a new prototype, the 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.720 air Taser thirty four thousand. They marketed it to civilians 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:29.000 who wanted to protect themselves, not police. They went on 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.000 sale in the Sharper Image catalog in nineteen ninety four. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:57.760 It was a disaster. Rick thought that regular people would 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.480 jump at the chance to buy tasers for their self defense. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.040 But what he didn't really consider was that most people 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.119 bought guns because they liked guns. They know what they 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.480 are and how to use them. They didn't like tasers. 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.680 I'm three years in. Rick was running out of cash. 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.720 By then, Jack Kober was gone. Rick was on his own. 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.920 Millions of dollars went into this basically wiping out my dad. 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.520 My mom at that point was super upset with us 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.560 because she was watching the nest egg Windel. 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.520 Rick told another journalist that his mom was so upset 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.840 she didn't even go to his wedding. He was scared. 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.000 He would stay up late filling orders himself, drinking beer 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:43.679 and wondering if everything he had put into this dream 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:44.840 was even worth it. 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:47.639 By now, I to be honest, I was on my 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.400 friends from Harvard. We're doing these startups up in Silicon Valley. 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.240 They were at these companies with goofy names like Yahoo, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.840 and at this point I just sort of frank job 0:21:57.920 --> 0:21:59.840 wanted out. But we had no choice. 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:03.600 As Rick tells it, his dad had signed over everything 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.320 he had to get the bank loans Rick needed. If 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.680 Rick couldn't pay him back, the family would lose everything. 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:17.840 Rick thought hard about his company. He still believed in 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:22.919 the mission to replace guns and by doing so, save lives. 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.760 He just needed customers, and if the sharper image crowd 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.600 wasn't buying, maybe police would. So he called the first 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:33.680 cop to ever give tasers a shop, Greg Meyer, from 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.560 the lapd. Rick invited him to dinner at Musso and 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:43.400 Frank's big red booths, white tablecloths, big steaks, A century 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:45.480 of Hollywood power brokers making deals. 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:49.280 Musso and Frank is more than one hundred years old. 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:52.760 Now it's a Hollywood hangout restaurant. All the stars would 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:53.880 hang out there and all that. 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:57.800 Greg talked about all the ways the taser needed to 0:22:57.800 --> 0:22:58.720 be better, and. 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:02.920 What law enforcement need, and what the strengths and weaknesses are. 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:05.359 Shape it like a handgun to make it easier for 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.800 cops to point and shoot. Make it smaller. All these 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:13.400 tasers were way too big. But most importantly, make sure 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:15.679 it worked every time. 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:19.280 And we had a wonderful dinner, and I wished them 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:20.800 well in their venture. 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.120 Rick heard Greg loud and clear. He knew how important 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.120 it was for the taser to be reliable. He'd seen 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.720 his taser fail before a couple of years earlier. In 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.399 nineteen ninety eight, Rick had taken the airtaser to a 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.720 police convention and he was giving a presentation to a 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:42.280 couple hundred cops when he asked if anyone would like 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:44.399 to volunteer to take a hit from the air taser. 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:47.439 He thought he'd fire it. The volunteer would drop to 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:50.720 the ground and everyone would get a laugh. But you 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.480 know that old saying, don't ask a question you don't 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.040 already know the answer to. A man named Hans Morrero 0:23:57.480 --> 0:23:59.439 raised his hand a volunteer. 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:02.720 I shoot him and literally doesn't plage. 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.560 Rick shot Hans with the taser, but he didn't go down. Instead, 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.040 he told Rick that the taser shock was making him uncomfortable, 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:14.800 which is, you know, not what you want to happen 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:18.600 when you're demonstrating a new weapon that's supposed to incapacitate 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:20.040 an attacker, and. 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:22.159 The whole audience roaring with laughter. 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:27.000 Everyone was laughing for the wrong reason. Later that night, 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.960 Rick Smith was down in the hotel bar, head down 0:24:30.119 --> 0:24:34.720 and embarrassed. Hans found Rick and they started chatting. 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:36.960 And I asked, you know, so I started asking in 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:39.160 questions and he starts explaining to me. He's as well, 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:42.520 yeah we know, sir, I've studying marcial arts at the 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:43.480 He's two years old. 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:46.320 He's like a karate kid meets the terminator. 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:48.880