Already the jokes are getting stale - "Real 'girl power' is having her own little Taser, pretty in pink!" - and the Associated Press story is less than a week old.

It told how an Arizona woman's entrepreneurial spirit prompted her first to sell a personal model Taser (it's a brand name) door-to-door. Then she fell on a better idea: If a woman can make a living being a hostess of a crystal party or having lingerie parties, she should be able to sell ladies gathered in a home on protecting themselves with the new Taser C2. Move aside, Tupperware party.

What are we coming to, asserting a person's Second Amendment right to pack and wield 50,000 volts of zap? Maybe better than her drawing down on someone with her Glock .40.

The C2 does have a cool look, described by the Taser Weapons Co. as "cleverly disguised as a flashlight" but likened by others to a lady's electric shaver. It has the same voltage as the formidable M18L with its laser sight used by law enforcement and the military, although the latter packs a more disabling jolt because of an "electro-muscular disruption" pulsing wave that briefly disables muscular control. Other Tasers, including the cute little C2, confine themselves to stunning the central nervous system. The C2 works on an assailant up to 15 feet away but has the added feature of contact stun capability. Grab me? Try this on!

The C2 comes in colors. The leopard spot is chic. But the Arizona saleswoman reports that pink is the hot property at her parties.

Hence the jokes.

They overlay and perhaps diminish the seriousness of the subject. Protecting oneself, loved ones and others from attack is no laughing matter. Neither is using a stun device.

In North Dakota, Tasers and other stun devices are legal for personal use as well as by law enforcement. But the classification in the state statute book is "dangerous weapon." And don't even think about bringing it with you to the saloon or the casino. No, no. And unless you're a cop, in this state you can't carry one in a concealed manner.

And as with everywhere, you're going to need a background check. The C2 has a gizmo that somehow won't let it be activated until the check comes out clean. If you're in New Jersey, fuhgeddabout it. All stun devices, totally illegal. And there are some strict regulations about bringing one along on a plane flight.

It's a weapon. Its degree of deadly force is a lot less than a handgun, granted. But even back in 2005, the Arizona Republic noted 140 deaths in the U.S. and Canada since 1999. Coroners attributed four to stun devices and called its use a factor along with others, including health conditions, in the other deaths.

The Florida student, causing a commotion at a John Kerry rally, perhaps as a dumb joke, contributed to the lexicon by shouting, "Don't Tase me, bro," before getting a zap. But there was not remotely any humor in the use of the device on an eight months' pregnant woman in Seattle in 2005 or Chicago police using one on an 82-year-old woman.

Maybe there'd be less enthusiasm about owning a personal stun device if, like cops during training, people had to experience being zapped once before being allowed to use one.