Greg Stanton

A bill making its way through Capitol Hill would exempt Tasers and similar weapons from gun laws, making it easier for ordinary people to get heavy-duty stun guns.

The legislation would loosen restrictions on "less-than-lethal projectile devices," including Tasers that use explosives for extra power. The U.S. House passed it earlier this month with support from almost all Republicans and some Democrats.

The bill is backed by Axon, the Arizona-based weapons behemoth and lone manufacturer of Tasers. The firm is one of the state's bigger political heavyweights, spending more than $2 million on federal lobbying during 2025.

Supporters say the proposed law would help popularize the technologies and thereby reduce deaths from gun violence by law enforcement. The topic has dominated headlines after the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officers in Minnesota.

Critics counter that the bill would create a new market for people to buy powerful weapons without typical safeguards, such as a background check, or even to transform the devices into weapons that could kill.

"What it's about is not law enforcement. It's creating consumer markets for average, everyday people to go and buy these kinds of weapons," said Kris Brown, president of the gun control group Brady.

Tasers are marketed as non-lethal, but can still be deadly. An Arizona Republic investigation in 2004 tied Taser stun guns to multiple deaths.

More recently, a 2019 investigation by Reuters found more than 1,000 people have died after being hit by a Taser since the weapon became popular in the early 2000s. The company attributed most of those deaths to other aggravating factors, such as police force or drug use by the person killed.

The new legislation advanced through the GOP-held Congress on Feb. 12. It passed by a margin of 233-185.

All but one House Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voted for the bill. So did 22 Democrats, including Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona.

Now the bill heads to the Senate. It's not yet clear if it can get the 60 votes needed to pass, which would likely require support from some Democrats. After that, it would proceed to the White House for President Donald Trump's signature.

Addressing police violence or new 'ghost guns?'

Right now, many kinds of Tasers are commercially available and sold to the general public. But others — like the newer, explosive-based Taser 10 — are subject to the nation's gun laws and sold primarily to law enforcement.

Supporters of the bill say it would prevent police violence by making it easier for state and local law enforcement to get Tasers and other "less-than-lethal" technology, rather than guns.

Axon promotes its weapons as an opportunity to "stop a threat without taking a life" and has a public campaign to lower gun deaths between police and the public by 50% within a decade.

The bill also includes a provision that would exempt those weapons from gun taxes.

Overall, the reforms reflect supporters' argument that Tasers and similar technologies aren't guns and shouldn't be taxed and regulated as such.

Republican Rep. David Schweikert, who helped advance the legislation and is now running for Arizona governor, said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic that the reforms would "modernize federal gun and tax laws to reflect the advances made in less than lethal technology" and "reduce both the regulatory and financial costs" that law enforcement agencies incur to obtain the weapons.

Stanton, a Democrat, echoed that the tools "allow police officers and security personnel to de-escalate dangerous situations without resorting to deadly force." He noted the bill has been endorsed by a number of law enforcement groups, including the Fraternal Order of Police union.

Those arguments don't persuade gun-control advocates who have lined up in opposition to the bill. State laws, not federal laws, regulate police weapons procurement, Brown pointed out.

Gun-control advocates are concerned that by re-categorizing an entire group of weapons, it gives manufacturers such as Axon a blank check to create new types of weapons that would be exempt from the safeguards that usually apply to guns, such as background checks or serializing weapons.

"You could be a convicted domestic abuser, and we've just created a huge exception for who gets to go buy these kinds of weapons, and be exempted from the entire background check system," Brown said.

The new rules would apply not just to Tasers, but to "whatever less-than-lethal projectile device the industry is able to come up with," said Mark Collins, Brady's director of federal policy.

They're also worried the legislation could create a new type of "ghost guns," the difficult-to-trace weapons that are assembled from parts that can be bought online.

GIFFORDS, the organization founded by former Rep. Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords, D-Arizona, and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, after she was shot in the head during a Jan. 8, 2011, assassination attempt near Tucson, warns the reforms "could establish a new, legal market for untraceable weapons."

They aren't satisfied with a provision in the bill that defines the exempted weapons as ones that don't accept a gun magazine or cannot be "readily modified" to do so.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld regulations on ghost guns, though it left the door open for challenges to individual exceptions.

"This bill completely undermines that," Brown said.

Media contacts for Axon didn't return several questions from The Republic about the legislation.