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TASER Self-Defense history
TASER Self-Defense company history timeline
When he graduated in 1993, Smith brought his academic project to life.
In 1993, Rick and Tom Smith formed AIR TASER, Inc. to, with Cover, design a version of the device that would use compressed nitrogen instead of gunpowder as a propellant.
Rick Smith showed the product to the Czech National Police Academy in Prague in 1995, when to his mortification the Taser failed to stop a volunteer.
1998: The company changes its name to Taser International, Inc.
The company got permission to sell its products in Canada in 1999, though stun guns had previously been banned in that country.
After nearly going bankrupt marketing other products such as an electroshock-based anti-theft system for automobiles known as "Auto Taser", the company, later renamed TASER International, introduced its TASER M26 weapon in 1999.
Taser International quickly gained sales in the law enforcement market, and by 2000 more than 500 law enforcement agencies were either using or testing the company's Advanced Taser.
The stock market started to contract in 2000, and the NASDAQ was particularly hard hit.
Taser International went public in May 2001, pricing its shares at $13.
In May 2001, they filed for an initial public offering and began trading on NASDAQ under the stock symbol TASR.
However, the Auto Taser never took off. "No one bought it," Tom Smith told the Los Angeles Times (March 21, 2002). "My brother started calling it the Bearded Lady: Everyone wanted to look at it and no one would take it home."
2003: The company buys out rival Tasertron.
In 2005, TASER International began to offer an accessory for its taser products, TASER Cam, which adds a grip-mounted camera that is activated after the safety is disengaged, to its battery pack.
In 2008, the company unveiled its first body camera, the Axon Pro.
In 2009, after prosecutor Daniel Shue exonerated Fort Smith police officer Brandon Davis based on footage from an Axon Pro camera, both Davis and Shue began to provide testimonials for the product in its marketing.
By October 2010, at least 45,000 TASER Cams had been sold.
As of 2011, more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States used the Taser.
However, as of 2012, according to the human-rights organization Amnesty International USA, there had been at least 500 deaths as a result of Taser use by law enforcement in the United States, which belies the “nonlethal” claim concerning Taser use.
Smith argued that the company was "not just about weapons, but about providing transparency and solving related data problems." In April 2013, the Rialto Police Department released the results of a 12-month study on the impact of on-officer video using Axon Flex cameras.
In June 2015, the company announced the formation of a new Seattle-based division known as Axon, which would encompass the company's technology businesses, including body cameras, digital evidence management, and analytics.
In 2015, Connecticut police used Tasers 56 percent of the time against minorities, even though they constituted just 19 percent of the population, and were more likely to threaten Taser use but not actually fire against white suspects than against African American or Hispanics.
On April 5, 2017, TASER announced that it had rebranded as Axon to reflect its expanded business.
In May 2018, Axon acquired competitor VieVu for $4.6 million in cash and $2.5 million in common stock.
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TASER Self-Defense competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sogeti | 1967 | $680.0M | 2,200 | 3 |
| Revere Group | 1992 | $110,000 | 2 | - |
| Hitachi Vantara | 1989 | $2.5B | 6,301 | 15 |
| EPI-USE Labs | 1983 | $22.0M | 375 | - |
| ITP | 1980 | $18.0M | 375 | 2 |
| InterSystems | 1978 | $644.0M | 1,780 | 27 |
| Linde Group | 1989 | $33.0B | 59,715 | - |
| RBA | 2006 | $84.0M | 300 | - |
| TCG Digital | 1999 | $21.4M | 360 | 4 |
| Sai Systems | - | $39.0M | 930 | 1 |
TASER Self-Defense history FAQs
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TASER Self-Defense may also be known as or be related to Axon, Axon Enterprise Inc, Axon Enterprise Inc., Axon Enterprise, Inc., Axon Enterprises Inc, TASER International, Inc., TASER Self-Defense, Taser International and Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle International.