> Women will shock men at the end of a date cause they don't want to go through the
> unpleasantness of telling the guy to buzz off and risk a bad response to the
> rejection.
Maybe a in a handful of cases, the woman in question being a seriously disturbed individual or completely whacked out on dope. Normal people don't do stuff like that (tasers and stun guns have been available for a long time, and are seldom used for "whimsical" stunning, afaik).
> Making the consequences of employing force high forces people to deal with a
> situation as well as they can FIRST without resorting to any force, whether it is
> lethal or non-lethal.
This only applies only to *rational* people, and most criminals are by definition not very rational. My guess is that people who aren't violent now won't all of a sudden become trigger-happy maniacs if they buy a phaser, but will remain civilized and responsible. Those most likely to abuse the weapon are people who were violent or unstable anyway, and if they'll now use a non-lethal phaser instead of a gun or kitchen knife, that will save a lot of lives. Often the reaction after shooting/stabbing someone [in a domestic fight] is "oh my gawd, I didn't mean to do this". Fortunately, this time there *is* a second chance.