Tasers again

Here's a little item that ties together two disparate posts: Tasers and medical records. (Hey, I did Tasers and bird flu, so why not?)

It seems that Taser, International, everyone's favorite stun gun company (broadcasting direct to you with 50,000 volts) has heard the general discomfort with their plan to sell their little devices direct to the public (where you can buy them, no questions asked, in 44 states). So they are hiring Atlanta-based ChoicePoint Asset Company to do criminal background checks and to verify the identity of prospective customers (SFGate.com).

The background checks will focus on criminal history and verifying that would-be buyers are who they claim to be, ChoicePoint spokesman Chuck Jones said.

He said Taser will set the criteria, "and ChoicePoint will then simply review available public records to determine whether or not an individual has anything in their background that would disqualify them from purchasing a device from Taser."

ChoicePoint, formerly the insurance services division of the credit agency Equifax but a separate company since 1997, has databases with approximately 19 billion public records, Jones said. [my emphasis].