Packing a Wallop With 50,000 Volts : Stun guns: The weapons are easily available and are being bought by women for self-defense. But criminals are also using them.

Celeste Mercer always packs a 50,000-volt stun gun in her handbag.

Her husband gave her the weapon as a Christmas present two years ago after she had complained that some transients were lurking near her office.

“It’s in my purse at all times,” Mercer, 48, said. “If I ever feel a problem could possibly arise, I can be prepared.”

Mercer’s small stun gun was bought at one of the many stores that sell the weapons in Ventura County. “Almost any sporting goods store carries them,” said Tony Montemorra, who owns the Sportsmen’s Exchange gun shop in Oxnard. “Most gun stores also carry them.”

Stun guns similar to Mercer’s were used by Ventura police to stun a mental patient who later died, and to shock a man suffering from an epileptic seizure during a traffic arrest.

Dealers say that the weapons are becoming popular with women as a means of self-defense. But law enforcement officials report that the weapons are also being used in crimes. Last month a Simi Valley man told police he was tortured with one in a business dispute.

One gun store owner said he sells up to 100 stun guns a month, and Jack Cover, who invented stun gun technology and licenses manufacturers, estimates that at least 1 million are sold in the United States each year.

The only requirement of stun gun vendors in California is that the weapons be sold with an instruction booklet and that the stun guns not be sold to minors under age 16 without written consent from their parents, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Schwartz said. As in Ventura County, stun guns can be purchased at gun stores throughout Los Angeles County.

People wishing to purchase stun guns--which some medical experts believe are potentially lethal--do not have to take a class for certification, as is required to carry Mace, or go through a background check, a prerequisite to buying a firearm.

“We know from our most recent experience that they can be lethal under certain circumstances,” said Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury. “Certainly if there’s a requirement to be certified to spray Mace in someone’s face, there should be something similar in place before you send 50,000 volts through someone.”

Stun-gun shock was listed by county Coroner F. Warren Lovell as one of three causes of death, along with violent exertion and heart disease, of Duane J. Johnson, who died Feb. 13 at Ventura County Medical Center shortly after being jolted by police officers called to subdue him.

Johnson, who had been admitted to the hospital two weeks earlier because of a severe heart problem, died at the end of a 45-minute ordeal that began when he threw himself into windows and walls to protest a transfer back to a mental hospital, authorities said.

The Ventura Police Department found that the two officers who shocked Johnson had acted within department policy, and prosecutors declined to file criminal charges.

But in a 53-page report, the district attorney concluded that the weapons are far more dangerous than advertised by their manufacturers and should be used only by officers with formal training, and only when suspects threaten to seriously injure or kill officers or the public.

Johnson’s parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Ventura Police Department and the county hospital.

Stun guns came to public attention again four months later when a former disc jockey who was suffering an epileptic seizure was shocked repeatedly with a stun gun by Ventura police Officer Steven Mosconi during a traffic arrest.

Mosconi was suspended for a month without pay in August for jolting Donn Christensen Jr. with a 50,000-volt Nova stun gun up to nine times after Christensen suffered the seizure and caused a minor accident on June 23. A lawyer for Christensen has said he will sue the city for $2 million in damages unless the City Council agrees to a $250,000 settlement by early this week.

Some law enforcement agencies also use the Taser, another stun-gun variety, which Cover also invented. The Taser was used on Johnson, authorities said.

The flashlight-size Taser shoots darts that trail electrical wires up to 14 feet long, or it can shock with two long contacts pressed to the skin. But Tasertron of Newport Beach, the only licensed producer, sells the weapons only to law enforcement agencies.

A Taser can be more effective than the smaller, over-the-counter variety because the darts spread apart as they travel and shock a wider area of the body, Cover said.

Over-the-counter stun guns, which must be placed on the body or within 1 1/2 inches of it, produce between 30,000 and 50,000 volts, Cover said.

If such a weapon is applied to the spinal column, it can cause a person to collapse, he said. In general, a two- to three-second application of the stun gun to the spine, neck or major nerves can subdue a victim for between three and five minutes, Cover said.

Gun stores in Ventura County carry a variety of American and foreign-made stun guns, ranging from about $40 to about $100.

Four store owners in the county said that security guards and joggers afraid of unrestrained dogs are among their clients. Hikers going into brush country also have been buying the weapon, which some believe is effective as an antidote to venom from snake bites. That benefit, however, has been debunked by medical experts.

A majority of stun gun buyers in the county are women, the store owners said. “Someone in their neighborhood has been murdered, and they’re scared,” said Judy Cotter, president of Hilldale Sales Inc., a Simi Valley gun store.

Most of her customers are between the ages of 17 and 28, she said, and are looking for a defense against rapists. Many are concerned because they work late at night and must walk into dark parking lots, Cotter said.

Cotter, who believes that Mace is often ineffective, said she recommends stun guns over firearms because many people aren’t willing to kill even if their lives are at stake.

“It’s like having a magic wand that you can wave, and all of the sudden the assailant can’t hurt you anymore,” Cotter said.

The store received 12 stun guns from a manufacturer on Sept. 11, Cotter said. Two weeks later, only one was left.

At Up In Arms, a gun store in Fillmore, sales of stun guns are increasing, said owner Gary Creagle, who described most of his customers as middle-aged and older women who fear being robbed or assaulted while walking to their cars at night.

Creagle said he sold about 35 guns last month and expects sales to increase in late October, when daylight-saving time ends. He said he also recommends the weapon as a deterrent to assault.

“Tyson can’t hit as hard as one of these things connected to the body,” Creagle said.

Many people are turning to stun guns for protection because other weapons are more difficult to obtain, dealers say.

For Mace to be carried, the state requires that a training course be taken in self-defense and first-aid, which usually lasts between two and four hours. And some question the effectiveness of Mace, a type of tear gas, because it must be sprayed into the face to have an effect.

To buy handguns, California residents must fill out an application and wait 15 days while the state investigates their backgrounds. If a background check reveals severe psychological disturbance or a criminal record indicating violent behavior, a dealer is notified not to sell.

Even if a person is authorized to purchase a gun, however, by law the firearm cannot be concealed. For that privilege, a person must apply to a police chief or sheriff for a concealed weapons permit.

But authorities say that the inexpensive, easily available stun guns have been used for more than self-defense.

In a recent case, Ronald Henry, a 23-year-old window installer from Simi Valley, was tortured with a stun gun, according to a police report.

Henry was working at a Sepulveda house on Sept. 14, when he was handcuffed and tortured for several hours over a business dispute, Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Muldrew said.

Henry told police that his captors had used a stun gun on him several times, Muldrew said. In addition, Henry’s hair was cut off, his eyebrows were pulled out and he was placed in a cage with six vicious Rottweilers during the three-hour ordeal, police said.

The owner of the house and three of his friends were arrested and charged with one count each of false imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon.

Stun guns were used about two years ago by two men commiting residential robberies in Villa Park in Orange County. They used a stun gun to force victims to comply with their demands, Lt. Dick Olson of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said. The robbers used the method two or three times before they were caught, Olson said.

And on Feb. 28, three young men robbed a Simi Valley restaurant owner after threatening him with weapons, including a stun gun, Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Totten said. The three men knew that the owner of the Simi 4 Deli had a practice of taking daily proceeds home each night, and assaulted him at his residence, Totten said.

The alleged assailants were eventually arrested in Los Angeles. Two men pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and being armed with a firearm and are to be sentenced Friday, Totten said. The third was arraigned in Superior Court on a charge of robbery and is awaiting a jury trial scheduled for Nov. 3, Totten said.