Think Tupperware parties, but for Tasers

A new kind of independent entrepreneur sells protection and peace of mind to women.

Last update: January 5, 2008 - 3:55 PM

GILBERT, ARIZ. - Before she lets them shoot her little pink stun gun, Dana Shafman ushers her new friends to the living room sofa for a serious chat about the fears she believes they all share.

"The worst nightmare for me is, while I'm sleeping, someone coming in my home," Shafman says, drawing a few solemn nods. Shafman, 34, of Phoenix, knows how they feel. She says she used to stash knives under her pillow for protection.

Welcome, she says, to the Taser party.

On the coffee table, Shafman spreads out Taser's C2 "personal protector" weapons that the company is marketing to the public. It doesn't take long before the women are lined up in the hallway, whooping as they take turns blasting at a metallic target.

Shafman isn't an employee for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International. She's an independent entrepreneur with a company called Shieldher Inc., who's been selling Tasers the way her mother's generation sold plastic storage containers.

As a single woman who lives alone, Shafman says she's the perfect pitchwoman as Taser makes a renewed push to sell weapons to families.

The company agrees. It liked Shafman's sales tactics so much that it plans to build a living room set at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and have Shafman hold a Taser party for buyers and dealers.

Shafman has sold about 30 guns per month at $349.99 since her first party in October. She says many of her customers love that the C2 is small enough to fit in their purses and that it comes in a variety of colors. But most want pink.

"It's a girl power kind of thing," she says. "You're kind of making a statement: I know I'm a woman. I know I'm the most sought after victim in regards to sexual assault, sexual abuse. So please stay away from me. If in the event you do come after me, I'm going to use my pink Taser to put you on the ground."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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