History Main / StunGuns

* TranquilizerDart: A small projectile that sedates its target.

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[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1643817589083411200&page=1#1 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

->'''Jordan:''' I want someone with a fucking tranquilizer gun ready to knock this motherfucker out. Mace, taser guns...
->'''Donnie:''' Do we want to get like a pellet gun, maybe?
->'''Jordan:''' No, a pellet gun is gonna hurt him. I just want him out. Knocked out cold.
-->-- ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''

Weapons that will cause the target they hit to lose consciousness for a certain period of time. Extra points if they cause a person to be mistaken for dead by a casual observer.

Many fictional examples do not explain ''how'' they incapacitate a target, simply acting like a nonlethal version of the InstantDeathBullet. And like the TapOnTheHead often used in fiction for similar purposes, they almost never cause someone to be killed accidentally. In real life, Taser weapons have infamously caused several heart attacks, although they're still much safer than coshing or shooting someone.

If they intentionally cause pain, they may also be (or double as) an AgonyBeam.

Useful when ThouShaltNotKill is in effect. Ideal as FamilyFriendlyFirearms and often part of a NonLethalWarfare. However most authors don't seem to consider that even if the target is not directly harmed by the stun effect, there are many situations where suddenly losing consciousness could be dangerous.

Subtropes include StaticStunGun for the electric-powered variant and SonicStunner for the sound-based version. May involve InstantSedation (especially in the form of firearms firing tranquilizer darts). Contrast AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe. See TheParalyzer for a related superpower.

'''Note:''' Although tranquillizer guns and taser guns are often referred to as "stun guns", the correct usage of the term is ironically tasers which are ''not'' taser guns, nor even capable of stunning people and animals.

----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/AgentAika'': Aika has a pistol that fires darts. It is used heavily in episode six. In Aika R16 and Aika Zero, guns appear to fire bullets, but they have the same effect as darts.
* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': [[spoiler:Nagisa]] uses a stun gun on [[spoiler:Takaoka]], which causes him to pass out.
* In ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'', [[{{Yandere}} Shouko]] does this to a non-complying [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend Yuuji]] while at the theaters, after he objects to watching ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' two times in a row, and later another film that lasts 7 hours, again two times in a row.
* ''Manga/CaseClosed'': Conan's wrist-watch tranquilizer needle gun. The victim barely has time to mumble a few words before keeling over. So far, there have been very few characters who have proven resistant to it. When it happens, it catches Conan completely off-guard. Gin shot himself in the arm to overcome the sedation with a rush of pain and adrenaline.
* [[ShockAndAwe Misaka Mikoto]] of ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' uses her powers for this in one episode of the anime after cheerfully explaining that electric stun guns don't work on her.
* Hei in ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' uses his electricity power like this at times. In one case he actually pretended to have a taser, because he wasn't disguised at the time.
* In ''Manga/DragonHalf'', Rosario shoots Mink with a knockout dart and she instantly falls. Then Rosario puts two more darts into her right away, [[spoiler:setting up a gag where he and the king think Mink died from the overdose]]. Strangely, at first Rosario accidentally inhaled and got the dart stuck in his tongue, but nothing ever came of this.
* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Akane attacks Shizuo with one after having been told the latter would kill her father and grandfather. The model she used was given to her by [[spoiler:Nakura]] under Izaya's orders and was heavily modified in order to be a lethal weapon. Unsurprisingly, all it does is sting Shizuo a little.
* One type of weapon ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''[='s=] Section 9 uses is something like a handshake joy buzzer, built like fingerless gloves. Of course, they're designed specifically for use against cyborgs.
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' has two types of damage: Physical and Magical. Physical damage can kill you, while Magical damage will only knock you out at most. The latter is the reason why Nanoha can [[DefeatMeansFriendship make friends]] by [[StuffBlowingUp blowing them up with]] a [[WaveMotionGun high-powered magical beam of pure energy]]. Inexplicably, [[AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe these same attacks are perfectly capable of damaging inanimate objects]], so one can survive having [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the entire area around destroyed]]. In TheMovie, Nanoha explicitly sets Raising Heart to stun.
* Several anime (''Anime/LostUniverse'' and ''Anime/{{Gasaraki}}'' immediately come to mind) treat rubber and plastic rounds this way, as somehow enacting the InstantDeathBullet without the death, rather than just ''hurting''.
* Several uses in ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka''.
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'''s Shion Sonozaki has a habit of knocking people out with tasers, often by pushing it very hard into their ''neck''. She has never given anyone more than a few hours of unconsciousness (at least, [[TortureCellar that's all she's done with the]] ''[[TortureCellar taser]]''...).
** [[spoiler: However, she accidentally killed her grandma with it. Tasers don't go well with the elderly apparently.]]
* ''Franchise/LupinIII'': A fairly often trope used when one of the main five characters are shot for real. Zenigata, as the "antagonist" to Lupin, is the frequent target. Usually wears off after his funeral.
* ''Anime/LupinIIIVsDetectiveConan'': Conan uses his watch-dart on Inspector Zenigata, who is so tough that it wears off in no time (though he still goes down quickly). Conan is pretty surprised when it wears off. Tots-san probably built up an immunity to it.
* ''Anime/MichikoAndHatchin'': Michiko appears to be very resilient when hit by a dart from a tranquilizer gun. Twice.
* ''Manga/MonsterMusume'': Kimihito gets hit by ''three'' darts that Ms Smith tried to shoot Miia, Papi, and Centorea with when they got out of hand. As the darts were set for monstergirls, who are much tougher than humans, Ms Smith is extremely alarmed that Kimihito might be killed, [[MadeOfIron but he recovers quickly with no long-term consequences]].
* ''Anime/NewGetterRobo'': Ryoma gets hit by an animal tranquilizer in the first episode, [[RuleOfCool but it doesn't stop him from running across the street and dropkicking his two attackers]] before going down. Note that this is ''after'' he had just fought a 3-on-1 fight against some Yakuza goons and had gotten a knife buried into his shoulder.
* ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'': Elmekia Lance is a weaked-down [[ReviveKillsZombie holy blast]] useful against things like demons and zombies. For what has been seen of its (usually accidental) use on humans, they tend to be knocked out cold. It's safe to assume the Ra Tilt does something similar, on a grander scale.
* Kanon Nakagawa, the neurotic IdolSinger from ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' uses these in harmonious DualWielding, especially when she feels insecure about her status. That is, whenever [[{{Otaku}} Kei]][[TheCasanova ma]] ignores her.
* ''Anime/TowerOfGod'': Khun "recruits" Edin with a tranquilizer gun.
* ''[[LightNovel/FullMetalPanic Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid]]''. Sousuke gives Kaname a taser weapon on her request, which she later uses to defend herself against an assassin.
* The Dominators in ''Anime/PsychoPass'' have a Paralyzer mode for targets whose Criminal Coefficients are between 100 & 299. Anything above that goes into [[LudicrousGibs Eliminator mode.]]
* In ''LightNovel/RailWars'', Naoto subjected to this in episode 10. He manages to absorb two shocks before keeling over in pain with Bernina, the person he was trying to protect pointlessly trying to cover him. The latter was about to be the recipient of a taser shock as well, were it not for Aoi's timely knee attack to the thug's face.
* When trying to wake up a sleeping Bean in ''Anime/RidingBean'', Rally tries to use a stun gun on his neck to wake him up it ''[[HeavySleeper doesn't]]'' work. So she just elicits to place a burning hot pan to his face. He wakes up no worse for wear.
* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', "Knocking" Guns fire needles to nonlethally bring down opponents. The catch is that the wielder needs to know the right nerves and pressure points to strike. "Knocking Master" Jirou and his grandson Teppei can perform Knocking with their bare hands.
* ''Manga/YokohamaKaidashiKikou:'' Kokone has a pistol loaded with "9mm electroshock rounds." They're non-lethal, but leave a scar.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedy]]
* Eddie Izzard parodied this once in a routine about less and less damaging settings for Star Trek Phasers: "Limp", "Bit of a Cough", "Depression", "Bad Eyesight", "Ice Cream Van Nearby", "Sudden Interest in Botany", "Water in the Ear After Swimming," and "Left the Oven on at Home". By ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', the default setting seems to be "mildly annoy".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''
** Before they learned about each others' secret identity, Bruce Wayne tried to use a tranquilizer gun on [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] so he could change into his cape and cowl. [[CoverBlowingSuperpower This was when Bruce finally realized Clark was Superman.]]
** Batman also used an incredible amount of darts in ''ComicBook/BatmanTheCult''. In fact, he loaded turrets and rifles with them, basically using them in pretty much the same way everyone else would use bullets. It sure is lucky that nobody can die from the wrong dosage of sedatives, eh?
* Comicbook/BlackWidow's wrist gauntlets fire electric shocks called the "Widow's Bite."
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': At one point (probably not anymore) the Punisher carried "mercy bullets" for use on interfering superheroes and bystanders. Spider-Man was once shot at point blank range with one; considering that even a blank can kill under circumstances like that...
** Then again most heroes are MadeOfIron which allows them to shrug off being shot by actual bullets, and Spider-Man has SuperToughness.
* Batman used rubber bullets in the Batmobile's turret when he mowed down the Mutants gang in ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns''.
* ComicBook/{{Kaliman}} uses curare-tipped darts (from a blowgun) to paralyze his foes (since he never kills). Ironically, in real life, most curare poisons (there are several under the same appellation) cause death by asphyxia.
* In ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', Lightning Lad/Live Wire often uses his ShockAndAwe powers this way (as does his sister when she possesses electrical power as Lightning Lass/Pulse/Spark).
* During a tie-in to ''ComicBook/SpiderGeddon'', Spider-Man takes his fight with Morlun to the Central Park Zoo. As Morlun's hunting for him, Spidey designs a bunch of darts with triple-strength sedatives. It takes at least four, including [[EyeScream one jammed into Morlun's eye]], to bring the vampire down.
* Blasters in ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'' have a 'stun' setting in order to avoid harming civilians. In the "Bitch" story, Johnny ordered Red to keep her blaster set to 'stun' at all times as he was sympathetic to the Kaiak-K.
* The [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon Lawgiver MkII]] in ''Film/JudgeDredd'' has a stun setting. However, it's notoriously unreliable and, as a result, [[ScrappyWeapon highly unpopular]] among street judges. They also have access to "Stumm" gas grenades, that incapacitate people through nausea, vomiting and other unpleasant symptoms - essentially current CS grenades on steroids - that unfortunately kill 1 in every 250 people affected so are only used in serious riots.
* After the ComicBook/SquadronSupreme forcibly disarms the nation as part of their Utopia Plan, law enforcement officers are armed with "Pacifier Pistols", guns that shoot small tranquilizer gels.
* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': The guards watching Captain America fired those at him when he got mad. It was no use: he's Captain America, so he took some medical tray he had at hand and used as an improvised shield to block the shots.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the first resort against Chrysalis consists of tranquiliser rifles, filled what seem to be absurdly lethal amounts of sedative (well, to anyone and any''thing'' but the hardy changeling herself).
* Literature/{{Discworld}}-set ''Fanfic/NatureStudies'' sees an urban safari in Ankh-Morpork after lots of imported animals manage to make a break for freedom. The Assassin-zoologist who coordinates the recapture uses Assassin blowpipes and modified poison darts to tranquilize the larger and more dangerous animals.
* In ''Fanfic/GuardianBlue'', a ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' fanfic, tranq darts are frequently used by the ZPD, but they're shown to have their limitations:
** In Season 1, part of the plot revolves around [[spoiler:the season's BigBad spiking elephants' ice cream with a substance to render them immune to tranq darts after he turns them savage]].
** In Season 3, Cherry armours herself against tranq darts by spraying her fur with epoxy. [[spoiler: The first time she takes on the ZPD, Judy and Nick only manage to take her down by putting darts in her joints - the few areas she couldn't epoxy. The second time, Chief Tora has to pin her down before Judy and Nick can tranq her again.]].
** Also from Season 3, it's mentioned that tranquilizers can be health hazards, which is why ZPD Medic Surikata panics and [[spoiler:gives Cherry a tranq diffuser - though he should have asked ''why'' they'd dosed her so much]].
*** Judy also figures that the reason [[spoiler:Clawhauser is the only Precinct 1 officer other than her to have killed someone in the line of duty is because he tranqed a suspect and it reacted badly to them, resulting in their death]].
* ''Fanfic/TheSecretReturnOfAlexMack'': This is Terawatt's usual nonlethal takedown method, until she tries out telekinetic ChokeHolds and finds that they work very well (at least so long as the opponent isn't able to resist with their own telekinesis or SuperToughness). She still pulls out the lightning bolts when fighting non-sapient monsters, but those are turned up to lethal levels.
* ''Fanfic/AllMixedUp'': In addition to her lifeline attached to her belt buckle that can turn people into personalized anagrammed objects and back again, Mariana Mag has a stun gun that she attempts to use on Otto in order to prevent him from going back to the few agents left of Precinct 13579 and warning them about her. The gun can both stun its targets and "unstun" them at will, and the villainess manages to hit Oscar's legs with it as well as leave Otto paralyzed on the right side of his body.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AlphaAndOmega'': The park rangers shoot Kate and Humphrey with tranquilizer darts to relocate them.
---> '''Kate:''' I'll meet you on Mars... right after I eat the Milky Way...
* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', Lucy renders Gru unconscious with a taser disguised as lipstick.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'':
** Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria are all hit by tranquilizer darts when they are caught by the animal control while inside New York City's Grand Central Station. Alex hallucinates and sees [[DisneyAcidSequence trippy imagery]] set to Music/SammyDavisJr's "The Candyman"... Then he gets tranq'd again before he gets put into the shipping crate, resulting in a sped-up version of the aforementioned sequence!
** In [[WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted the third film]], all four of the Zoosters (and Julien) are darted right after they return to the Central Park Zoo.
---> '''Marty:''' I'm like a candy cane... in a black and white movie...
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Roxanne Ritchie is put to sleep with a can of mace spray.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'': When the Ocean gets fed up with Maui's acting up, it (she?) blows a dart in Maui's [[PainToTheAss butt cheek]]. While this doesn't make Maui lose consciousness, his entire body goes completely limp for a while, so it clearly acts as a muscle relaxant. The blow darts come from the Kakamora, the coconut pygmy pirates, who use tranquilizer darts as their main weapon along with arrows.
* On ''WesternAnimation/OpenSeason'', Boog's caretaker has to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart when he apparently goes on a rampage (he's actually fighting with Elliot, who gets several darts to the butt as well).
* In the first trailer for ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy uses one on Nick after he trips her. This is clearly a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, because the trailer goes out of its way to identify the dart as an "air-powered elephant tranquilizer" which would be [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill clearly fatal if used on a small fox.]] Also, the sedative appears to be in the feathered end, as a wildebeest eats that part while Judy is arresting Nick and keels over before she has a chance to warn it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls'', Ace takes three darts, which he says "is too much." [[UpToEleven And then he takes four more.]]
* ''Film/AntMan1'': Detective Paxton tases Scott, knocking him out so he can be put in the police car and taken back to jail.
* ''Film/TheAvengers1998''. Sir August renders Mrs. Peel unconscious with a drug-tipped dart.
* In the short film made of ''Battleground'' by Creator/StephenKing, TheUnnamed hitman shoots two security guards using a tranquilizer gun (carefully removing the darts afterward to avoid leaving potential evidence for the police). While one goes down immediately, the second guard (a strong, fit-looking man) just yelps from the dart and reaches for his own gun, but the hitman is prepared for this and quickly knocks him out physically.
* ''Film/BlackWidow2021'': Red Guardian gets shot with a dart, but since he's really big and a SuperSoldier, he laughs it off. He then gets shot with several dozen darts and gets knocked out.
* The gang throw a knockout gas grenade into the security car trailing the armored van during the ArmedBlag on the Tower Bridge in ''Film/CircusOfFear''.
* ''Film/TheCreeps'': [[MadScientist Dr. Berber]] has a collapsible taser that he uses to knock Anna unconscious so he can steal the ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' manuscript[[spoiler:, and her]].
* In ''Film/CubeZero'', the soldiers shoot tranq darts at the escaping prisoners, as their mission is retrieval, not elimination.
* The Glow Rods in ''Film/DemolitionMan'' at first do not necessarily appear to be electrical, but near the end of the film, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) exploits the "water = taser trap" form of the trope.
* ''Film/KillerUnderTheBed'': [[spoiler:Dr Ryder]] uses one to shock [[spoiler:Sarah]] into unconsciousness so [[spoiler:she can tie her to a dentist's chair]]. Then [[spoiler:Sarah escapes the chair and uses the stun gun on her]].
* The Pink Berets from ''Film/{{Hop}}'' have blowguns with sedative darts as their primary weapon. A patrolman near the Hollywood sign gets one dart to the neck, resulting in InstantSedation. Two large dogs living beside a mansion where the Pink Berets' quarry is staying also get one dart each. Finally, TheHero discovers them in the mansion's kitchen, whereupon he receives a salvo of six darts to the face.
* ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}''. Used for a long-range KnockoutAmbush on Andy and Charlie, as it's the only way to capture them safely due to their superpowers. Trying to attack Charlie at any range even with bullets is a dangerous proposition, as the Shop later discovers.
* ''Genesis II''. Members of PAX have small pistols that fire tranquilizer darts. They can render the target unconscious in seconds.
* ''Film/GetSmart'' Max attempts to use a tranquillizer dart on a guard so that he and Agent 99 can infiltrate their target's mansion. But [[TheKlutz Max ]]accidentally ends up sucking the dart, knocking himself out. When he wakes up, he finds that [[ActionGirl 99]] has snuck both him, and even [[UndressingTheUnconscious changed his clothes]] for him.
* ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy'' explicitly mentions that Xi's tranquilizer darts don't take effect immediately. That's why they are rigged to fall off immediately, so the victim doesn't know they've been tranqed (they feel only the sting, which can be attributed to insects).
* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' has a sequence where Rocket deals with a bunch of attackers using traps including tranq dart launchers. In this case InstantSedation makes sense, since the dart launchers almost look like military missile launchers and thus each victim gets hit with almost a dozen darts at once.
* ''Film/HoubaOnTheTrailOfTheMarsupilami''
** The trope is {{exaggerated|Trope}} with Dan Geraldo, who gets ''dozens'' of blowpipe darts in the face before fainting.
--->'''Dan:''' [[PartingFromConsciousnessWords It stings a bit]].
** Later played straight with tranq darts fired by a rifle, which take out the Marsupilami (as well as a soldier by accident).
* ''Film/JamesBond''
** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''. While Bond is helplessly strapped to a table, Kisch renders him unconscious with a tranquilizer dart pistol.
** ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'': Octopussy's ladies use these against Kamal Khan's henchmen when they storm his palace.
** ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain''. James uses a sleep-poisoned blowgun dart on a {{Mook}} guard during UnwinnableTrainingSimulation opening.
* In ''Film/Jungle2Jungle'', Mimi-Siku brings his blowgun and several darts with him to New York. His father's aim proves rather questionable, as he tries to practice with it and ends up shooting his own foot. And his fiancée's cat. And his best friend's wife.
* ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'': Blue the velociraptor is shot with a tranquilizer dart in an attempt to relocate her. She still manages to attack someone under the effects of the tranquilizer and is then shot with a bullet.
* ''Film/KangarooJack'': The protagonists accidentally shoot a dart to their airplane pilot while they are airborne; the pilot experiences the effects in stages as noted by one of them.
* In ''Film/LazerTeam'', Zach is tased not once, but three times (inadvertently the third time), including being tased twice in a row in one scene. This is especially notable as his actor, Creator/MichaelJones, was later tased twice in a row during the Creator/RoosterTeeth Extra Life fundraising stream in which they were raising money for a children's hospital. What's more, he volunteered for this as part of a fundraising goal.
* Frank Drebin's cufflink tranquilizer darts in the first ''Film/TheNakedGun'' movie. The bad guy staggers around long enough to fall over a railing to a CruelAndUnusualDeath.
* ''Film/OldSchool'': Frank accidentally shoots himself in the neck with one and starts acting trippy as everything becomes slow-motion.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': Black Widow has her Widow's Bite, which can discharge electric blasts to stun enemies. In ''Film/IronMan2'', she uses small discs to knockout some guards with an electric jolt. ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' sees her add a pair of electroshock batons to her arsenal.
* The 2014 version of ''[[{{Film/Robocop2014}} Robocop]]'' has this as the title character's signature weapon.
-->'''Mattox:''' TSR-66 cartridge-driven taser pistol. Each projectile releases up to 200,000 volts. It can stun, it can kill... and it's nasty shit.
** And no, Murphy is not above applying it as ElectricTorture by [[KickTheSonOfABitch shooting people who already surrendered if he feels the target deserves it]].
--->'''Murphy:''' Hey doctor, what happens if I tase an exoskeleton with a little asshole inside?
* "Dynamo" in ''Film/TheRunningMan''
* Even the great Wrestling/ElSanto proves vulnerable to a knockout gas grenade thrown by a hunchback in ''Film/SantoYBlueDemonContraDraculaYElHombreLobo''.
* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe is rife with stungun technology. Many blaster pistols have a stun setting in addition to the kill setting (a feature commonly lacking in the FPS games). Though a blaster on Stun is only fired once in the original film series, against Leia at the beginning of ''Film/ANewHope'', [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] and [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]] authors have taken that one scene and run with it. Stunners come back into use in ''Film/TheLastJedi'' with both Finn and Poe on the receiving end.
* In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', Franchise/JamesBond's mobile phone includes, besides its signature ability to remote-control his CoolCar, a two-pronged electroshock weapon activated by pressing the Recall button. In a memorable case of this, Bond overcomes one of the villains by tricking him into zapping himself with it.
* The already-absurd-in-many-ways Vin Diesel vehicle ''Film/XXx'' takes this particular trope to an absurd degree, with the movie's version of Q giving Xander Cage a gun with an assortment of incredibly expensive "specialized" ammunition with various bizarre functions, including a highly complex bullet that not only knocks out its target with a harmless tranquilizer but contains a blood-squib to create the flawless illusion of an actual shooting to any witnesses. Xander Cage, of course, is almost immediately [[PlotTailoredToTheParty given the opportunity]] to use these in a staged assassination.
* ''Film/MinorityReport'':
** Since the premise is centered around law enforcement, the film shows off quite a few nonlethal weapons. The closest thing they have to a stun gun is a gun that shoots a huge shockwave of air powerful enough to [[BlownAcrossTheRoom blow people across the room]].
** Another hilarious example is the Sick Stick. It's a nightstick that causes a person to ''instantly'' vomit.
* The Psychlo handguns in ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' have a stun setting, which they use to capture rogue humans for their labor camps. It seems like it's two weapons in one, especially since they use different barrels. The lethal mode is basically a HandCannon that can blow holes in a person's body. The stun mode shoots a green pulse that knocks out a target cold.
* The wimpy police in ''Film/DemolitionMan'' use "glow rods", which somehow use electricity to render the target unconscious. John Spartan is unimpressed when he has to confront Simon Phoenix armed with one of these, but he quickly discovers what happens when you add water to the equation.
* ''Film/KingKong'': The gas bombs work very quickly and appear not to endanger the monsters life.
* In the final scene of ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'', as Alice [[EscapedFromTheLab escapes from the laboratory she's cloned in]], a guard tried restraining her with a ranged taser. But since Alice is a superhuman, she simply rips the taser embedded on her skin and throws it back at the guard knocking him out.
* In ''Film/RoboCop2014'', one of the titular character's weapons is a NI-408 pistol (AKA TSR-66), which fires taser rounds of 200,000 volts each. The rounds can stun or kill. Murphy frequently uses it [[GunsAkimbo together ]] with an M2 Battle Rifle.
* In ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', Simon uses some sort of area-effect stun weapon disguised as a cane to knock out the scientists at the Academy. It appears to be a one-shot, though.
* ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'' has Landon use one of these on Rocket, when he's fighting with Caesar.
* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'': In the [[FinalBattle climactic battle]] when [[WrenchWench Kaylee]] is tranquilised by Reavers. She takes three darts to the neck. Although she quickly begins to feel shaky, she can still hurry (albeit with [[TheMedic Simon's]] help) into the corridor behind and continues to stand, shielded from Reavers by Simon while Zoe and [[BoisterousBruiser Jayne]] struggle to close the blast doors. Only when Simon helps lie her down does she comment she's beginning to lose feeling. Even then, the FinalBattle between [[TheCaptain Mal]] and [[AffablyEvil the Operative]] has to take place and Mal return for us to spot that Kaylee, while not moving very much at all, is still conscious.
* ''Film/ShandraTheJungleGirl'': The expedition uses tranquillizer darts to take Shandra alive. One accidentally hits Cord and knocks him out for three day. If the darts had been calibrated to take down the MadeOfIron Shandra, this probably surprising.
* ''Film/TheSoldier''. When the Soldier's unit are taking over an ICBM base, they use a full-auto version ([[ImproperlyPlacedFirearms actually a LARC International M19-A BB gun]]) to fire several darts into a guard. This is because they are trying to take everyone alive, though that [[WhatMeasureIsAMook doesn't stop them shooting down a helicopter later.]]
* ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'': Nick Fury shoots Ned with a dart that knocks him out before he even hits the ground, though Fury advises Peter to move Ned to a comfortable position to make sure he doesn't accidentally swallow his tongue.
* ''Film/SpiesLikeUs''. Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge knock out five Soviet soldiers instantly with "high-compression tranquilizer pistols".
* ''Film/TerrorBirds'': The villain's henchmen use them to knock out the protagonists with InstantSedation.
* In the 1967 comedy ''Film/ThoroughlyModernMillie'' the darts [[InstantSedation work instantly]], though the earlier KnockoutGas did not work as well.
* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': [[spoiler:Stryker's men]] use these devices to knock out almost everyone on Xavier's property unconscious.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Agent Grant uses a cattle prod as a taser during a bank robbery in ''Literature/{{Curveball}}''. He later mentions that he wouldn't have bothered with the cattle prod if he'd known that their helmets weren't padded, which meant that [[TapOnTheHead tapping them on the head]] was far more effective than he thought it would be.
* Franchise/DocSavage and his "mercy bullets" may have created this trope.
* In the 1941 story "Fire-Power", by C.M. Kornbluth (writing as "S.D. Gottesman") there is one reference to "electric stunners". This has been cited as the first occurrence of SonicStunner, but was probably intended as a static stun gun.
* There were "Markheim stunners" in Alan E. Nourse's 1958 novel ''Gold In The Sky''.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's classic 1949 story "Literature/{{Gulf}}" features a static stun gun called a "Markheim". This may well have been be the TropeCodifier; Heinlein's influence on later genre SF was enormous.
* In ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' "needle stunners" fire a needle that carries a static charge strong enough to make muscles seize up like a taser, except the range and ammo capacity are greater and it can penetrate heavy clothing or even light armor.
* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' has mercy needles, slivers of [[InstantSedation anesthetic]] that dissolve in the bloodstream of whoever is shot with them.
* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' explains the stun setting on a blaster as an electrical effect.
* ''Literature/TomSwift And His Ultrasonic Cycloplane'' (1957). The villain had a weapon that generated electromagnetic waves which shocked the target into stunned submission.
** ''Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle'' (1911) gave the taser its name. '''T'''homas '''A'''. '''S'''wift's '''E'''lectric '''R'''ifle
* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', stunners are standard issue for police or anyone else who might want to be able to shoot first and ask questions later. Hangover-like symptoms are a nearly universal side-Effect, and at one point something like "we don't have to worry about heart conditions with this lot" is mentioned, implying that there is a risk of causing more severe damage than intended. She also points out a problem with stunners: If they're all you've got, then you can be killed by an unarmed mob, since they won't be afraid of attacking you, and with sufficient numbers they can overwhelm you, and kick you to death. If you were carrying a lethal weapon, they wouldn't dare try it.
* In Margaret Atwood's ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'', the Aunts wield cattle-prods.
* Creator/EEDocSmith's ''Family D'Alembert'' series (mostly ghostwritten by Stephen Goldin after Smith's death) features a stun gun with settings from one to ten. #1 is a mild shock that will sometimes not render the finest physical specimens immediately unconscious; #3 or #4 will put you out for up to an hour; #8 will put you down for many hours, and SOME victims suffer permanent neurological impairment; #10 is uniformly lethal. Weak or infirm victims may react worse to any given setting. Preferred by law enforcement because in moments of doubt you can shoot everybody and not worry about the consequences, but it backfires on them when the bad guys start using [[spoiler:humaniform robots]], against which they are ineffective.
* Creator/AndreNorton's science fiction stories had stunners, pistol-like devices that rendered their victims unconscious.
* Zoe of Creator/MatthewReilly's ''Six Sacred Stones'' uses one to incapacitate guards at Stonehenge.
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/TheStarsAreColdToys'', the Russian government has managed to develop one-shot paralyzers that become useless after discharging with no way to recharge the battery. Unlike the typical examples of this trope, the target remains fully conscious but is incapable of movement. It is proven to work on at least one other race. Interestingly, the paralyzer is made by a think tank specifically charged with reading/watching science fiction for ideas. Their other known invention is an ExplosiveLeash.
* ''Literature/MarkDelewenAndTheSpacePirates'' has Officer Tirt ordering Mark to set his [[RayGun gun]] to stun. Justified, as he's a [[SpacePolice police officer]]; killing people he is supposed to be arresting would be frowned on.
* The ''Stupefy'' spell from ''Literature/HarryPotter'' renders the target unconscious when the right amount of power is put into it, and most victims are shown being magically revived with no side-effects. Taking multiple hits at once, however, is not advised, especially for older people--[[spoiler: Professor [=McGonagall=] needed a hospital stay after such an experience in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'']]. If the caster if puts enough energy behind the spell or the individual being hit is too weak the spell can be fatal, as it was when [[spoiler: Molly Weasley used it against Bellatrix Lestrange]] in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''.
* Parts of the Franchise/StarWarsLegends note various drawbacks and side effects. The "expanding and shrinking blue rings" special effect is taken to mean that stun settings have far less range than the usual [[SlowLaser Slow Lasers]] of kill settings.
** ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', when Thrawn's forces are out to capture a pregnant Leia, reveals that they can't just stun her, since it sometimes causes miscarriages.
** In the Literature/XWingSeries Corran Horn is stunned and is conscious but paralyzed until it wears off, unhappily remembering that this happens to him sometimes when he gets stunned.
** ''Literature/SurvivorsQuest'' has the [[BadassCrew Aurek Seven]] stormtroopers checking someone they'd just stunned for heart palpitations.
** In ''Literature/StarWarsAllegiance'', Mara Jade confronts a shady warehouse dealer who doesn't believe her when she tells him that he's not going to like the penalties for assaulting an Imperial agent. He orders his thugs to restrain her. One of them pokes her with the muzzle of his blaster just before firing; she twists around and uses the Force and some fancy moves to shoot all of the thugs, ending with the one who poked her, with that blaster, and aims it at the warehouse dealer. All very quickly.
---> "Stun settings," she commented approvingly as the triple thud of falling bodies faded away. "So Pirtonna wasn't nearly as ready to play all-or-nothing with me as you are. Smart man. Means he gets to live through the night. What do you think ''your'' odds are?"
** During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', Tash wants an ActualPacifist to shoot someone with a blaster pistol set to stun, telling her that this isn't breaking the rules of nonviolence, just bending them. In a later book, she takes a blaster from one of Vader's stormtroopers and uses it to resolve a SpotTheImpostor plot--and finds that it's set to stun.
* Various paralysis and [[InstantSedation narcosis-inducing]] weapons are in relatively common use in the ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' universe, though they tend not to penetrate [[DeflectorShields force fields]] very well -- if your target has one of those active, you usually need to get rid of it first. As in the Vorkosigan Saga example above, the problem with using ''only'' StunGuns in combat comes up in one issue; a carefully placed blaster shot puts the opposition back on their guard quickly enough in this particular case.
* The [[FishPeople hydrites]] from the German SF series ''Literature/{{Maddrax}}'' have shocking staffs. These look a lot like a telescopic baton, but are much thicker and can shoot lightning bolts. Because the hdrites are a pacifist and peaceable species, the shock sticks are usually set to merely anesthetize the attackers. However, they can also shoot deadly lightning with them.
* This is LostTechnology in ''Literature/EternityRoad''. A BenevolentAI gives the expedition some taser guns [[RagnarokProofing kept in a security guard weapons cabinet]], but once they're run out of power they're ineffective. Before that happens they use them against some river pirates, but this backfires as the pirates don't understand what's happening, instead concentrating all their fire on the one person who picked up a recognizable firearm in the confusion.
* ''Literature/FunJungle'': The park security force uses them. In ''Panda-monium'' guard Kevin Wilks tries to stop a fleeing criminal with his taser gun but trips over a little kid as he's about to shoot and accidentally tasers an old lady instead (although the crook then trips over her and knocks himself out).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'': In the ChristmasEpisode, Little Pete shoots the Garbage Man with a tranq (actually hitting a major vein!), and it takes a couple minutes of real-time to start taking effect.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. The title character has hand-thrown flechette darts that serve this purpose.
-->'''Arrow:''' Tranq dart. He'll be out for [[LudicrousPrecision thirty-six minutes]].\\
'''Quentin:''' Yeah...''(rubs neck)'' [[Recap/ArrowS1E17TheHuntressReturns I remember]].
* ''Series/Batman1966'' episode "The Ring of Wax". The Riddler takes down Batman and Robin with anesthetic darts fired from a blowgun.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In the episode "Hostage Situation", Jake knocks Charles out by shocking him in the back with a taser.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Oz is a frequent victim of these, what with him being a werewolf. Over the course of the series he gets shot six times with a tranquilizer dart: "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E15Phases Phases]]", "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E4BeautyAndTheBeasts Beauty and the Beasts]]", ''twice'' in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E13TheZeppo The Zeppo]]", "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E6WildAtHeart Wild at Heart]]" and "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E19NewMoonRising New Moon Rising]]".
** Giles gets shot with a tranquilizer dart meant for Oz when Buffy is thrown off the mark by the intended target's girlfriend.
** Willow shoots her vampire counterpart with one in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E16Doppelgangland Doppelgangland]]".
* In an early episode of ''Series/BurnNotice'', Fiona zaps a Russian Mobster with a taser gun. However, since the mobster is currently grappling with her, the zap renders both of them unconscious. Note that in real life, taser guns neither cause unconsciousness, nor pass their current by physical contact with another person.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'':
** Every time tranquilizers are used, unless the victim is BadassNormal Casey. When they have to tranquilize [[ThoseTwoGuys Jeff and Lester]], Lester goes down instantly but Jeff takes multiple darts and a few minutes to lose consciousness. Jeff is a bigger guy and his past drug use made him more resistant.
** The eponymous character himself is more wont to use tranquilizer darts as opposed to actual guns to (temporarily) take out bad guys. They ''always'' cause harmless InstantSedation.
* Although Series/{{Dexter}} consistently uses a syringe up-close, there is one episode involving a tranquilizer dart. The target is an animal control worker who is holding a tranquilizer gun loaded to take down an alligator. Presumably resistant to the effect of tranquilizers from personal experience, he has enough time to shoot Dexter with it before he collapses. Dexter also has a bit of time to pull the dart out before losing consciousness. They both wake up in an ambulance with some really worried [=EMTs=].
* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': In "Murder Most Animal", local zookeeper Xander Sheppard is found shot in the back with a poisonous dart, and a tranquilizer rifle is found discovered just inside the zoo fence. Later, J.P. gets shot in the butt with a tranquilizer dart by Ruby while the two of them are trying to arrest an animal smuggler.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' equips Taggert, the Crocodile Dundee-esque dogcatcher, with these. Used twice, to take down FishOutOfWater Marshall Jack Carter, and inadvertently, the owner of the town's biggest (and possibly only) café.
* An episode of the documentary series ''Series/FatalAttractions2010'' gave a good illustration of how these work in RealLife. When a man was discovered [[TooDumbToLive keeping a full-grown tiger in a New York City public-housing apartment]], a NYPD officer rappelled down from the roof with a tranquilizer gun to shoot the tiger through the window. When he did, the tiger immediately charged, hitting the wall with such force that the entire building shook. Only then did the tranquilizer take effect, enabling officers to safely remove the tiger from the building.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "All the Streets Are Quiet", the FBI use a tranquilizer gun borrowed from the local zoo to knock out the two {{Angry Guard Dog}}s guarding the crooks' hideout.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Phoebe is shot in the backside with a dart. She never passes out, though she does comment that her buttock is asleep (and that the other one has no idea). Of course, the dart was intended for a very small monkey, so there probably wasn't much juice in there anyway.
* In ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'', IntrepidReporter Jack [=McGee=] at one point has a tranq gun to use on the Hulk. Sure enough, the Hulk shows up and [=McGee=] shoots him, to seemingly no effect even though he uses several darts. After the Hulk grabs and destroys the gun and runs off, he starts being affected.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}''
** In an episode, Sayid is shot twice with tranquilizing darts. He pulls one dart out and we're led to believe that the trope is playing straight until he surprises the shooter, who approached him to confirm unconsciousness.
** Used in a lot of other episodes, featuring darts, gas and chloroform. Namely, some episodes in this respective order are: "Live Together, Die Alone", "Left Behind" and "Something Nice Back Home".
* Discussed in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', where trapped with a pair of lions, Malcolm shoots down the zoo personnel's idea of tranquilizing them on the grounds that the beasts would have just enough time to get angry and tear them apart (the show puts it at three minutes, which is almost certainly selling the lions short, but it's the thought that counts).
* Tranquillizer darts are frequently used in ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' to stop creature attacks.
** Also used for that purpose on ''Series/{{Zoo}}'' when afflicted animals are being captured alive for research.
* In an episode of ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'', Ed Frid once shot himself in the foot with a tranquilizer dart and remained conscious long enough to calculate how long he would sleep, give Red instructions on how to deal with the animal they'd captured and lay down comfortably.
* Used in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' on basically everyone who isn't [[NighInvulnerable Clark Kent]], probably more than once.
* Played with in an episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. Ford is hit with a dart, pulls it out and seemingly collapses immediately. The villains move in to restrain him, only for him to suddenly wake up and attack, indicating that he was either only stunned for a moment, or he may have been playing possum to draw them in.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** Tranq guns are used in "Hathor" by O'Neill and Carter to neutralize male soldiers enthralled by Hathor without killing them. As usual, sleep is instantaneous.
** In "In the Line of Duty", when Sam/Jolinar gets tranqued twice, the first case with "enough to knock out an elephant," it takes a minute before she's out.
** In one episode Daniel shoots Osiris with a tranq dart, and she pulls it out, looks annoyed, goes and activates some transporter rings, then leaves in a spaceship. The last shot of her shows that she's just a tad off-balance, and that's about two minutes after getting shot. Note that he's using a Goa'uld-specific sedative.
** The same Goa'uld-specific sedative proves completely inefficient against Kull warriors, however, even though the trinium-tipped darts can pierce their special armor.
** In the later seasons, people are using tranq darts all the time and they often [[InstantSedation knock the victim out in less than a second]], and occasionally cause the victim to throw themselves away from the dart.
!!!'''Creators:'''
* Many of the Gerry Anderson live-action puppet shows featured non-lethal weaponry, including:
** The old and now almost unknown series ''Series/FireballXL5'' gave the heroes a Coma Ray Gun, a non-lethal weapon capable of making most lifeforms fall into a deep, coma-like sleep for whatever period of time the plot required.
** ''Thunderbirds'': The Tracy boys had guns with interchangeable ammunition represented by different coloured gun barrels. They could fire normal bullets (red), gas pellets (blue) or tranquillising darts (yellow).
!!!'''Series:'''
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': Early on, Fitz develops an InstantSedation-causing but entirely nonlethal neurotoxin that can be packed into hollow bullets and fired from guns that greatly resemble normal firearms, initially rifles but later pistols. After the technology is perfected the agents use it in place of lethal guns almost exclusively. (How they continue to manufacture and stock this unusual ammunition despite their other resource problems goes unexplained.) The first rifle is initially named, to much ridicule, the "Night-Night Gun", but later they come up with the much cooler acronym I.C.E.R.s.
* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' uses "tranq guns" a lot (see InstantSedation).
* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski explicitly forbade these from ''Series/BabylonFive'': "Stun settings are for people who can't commit." If you're fighting someone, either hit him or JustShootHim - if you're not, ''talk to him''.
** It's implied that a low-level PPG blast won't kill but will result in some nasty burns.
** Generally speaking, if Babylon 5's security personnel needed to take someone alive, they used old-fashioned batons or grappled them directly. The Minbari did have one or two high-tech methods of rendering someone unconscious, but even they typically would just club someone with a fighting staff.
* 1960s ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' episode "That Darn Catwoman". Catwoman's goons use electric cattle prods to stun Batman into unconsciousness.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. A flash-bang grenade is used to knock out Tigh and Adama during TheMutiny; this of course is a weapon developed for anti-terrorist use in RealLife.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.
** In "Project Avalon", Blake is shot during the dramatic rescue of a RebelLeader from a detention center. His injuries are only minor however, so he has Avon examine a captured weapon. [[spoiler:The rebel leader is actually an [[TrojanPrisoner android impersonator]].]]
--->'''Avon:''' It's not standard issue. Low energy bolt discharge. This could bruise or stun, but it couldn't cause any serious injury.
** In "Volcano", the Pyroans use a pistol that fires a narcotic spray into the air above their target, drifting down as a mist and [[KnockoutGas rendering them unconscious]]. However when fired directly at a person, the [[DeadlyGas concentrated dosage kills them]].
** The BloodlessCarnage in the final episode (except for one actor who insisted he be KilledOffForReal) was so the producers could bring the characters back to life if the series was renewed another season, by saying that stun guns had been used.
* The weapons used by The Initiative in Season 4 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** Leland Owlsley has a stun gun that he drags out of storage once the man in the mask starts causing problems for Hell's Kitchen organized crime. He uses it to great effect on Matt Murdock when Matt is distracted by Stick's sudden appearance. In the season 1 finale, Leland tries to use it on Wilson Fisk, [[NoSell who shrugs it off]] and kills him by throwing him down an elevator shaft.
** The Kitchen Irish members that corner Frank Castle at the carousel in "Penny and Dime" use tasers to subdue him.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]] has the Daleks' weapons shown to have a secondary "stun" function which is used on one of the Doctor's companions. However, it should be noted that the blast does not render him unconscious, it only temporarily paralyzes his legs. In their defense, Ian was pretty [[JustForPun stunned]] when they blasted him.
** The Fourth Doctor gets knocked out by such a weapon in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace "The Ark in Space"]]. "Stun guns; I hate them."
** K9's nose blaster had a stun setting, which the Doctor [[ThouShaltNotKill naturally preferred]] to the more lethal options.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood "Cold Blood"]] has a Taser. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when the person hit with it ends up dying from repeated shocks.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], the Doctor snatches the sidearm from a Gallifreyan general. He's told; "That's the sidearm of the President's personal security. There isn't a stun setting." He shoots the General anyway, though not before checking that he's got some regenerations left. So this trope is played straight, yet also averted to show OOCIsSeriousBusiness, as the Doctor doesn't like guns and prefers to avoid killing anyone.
* Captain Larraq in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' carried a specialized stasis gun for capturing hosts of the intellent virus he and his crew of commandos were chasing.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Alliance police officers generally carry some kind of concussion/stunning rifle (sonic weapons, at least according to [[AllThereInTheManual the RPG]]) that knocks people off their feet and leaves them dazed, though it doesn't appear to have any effect on inanimate objects like doors, as Jayne finds out in "Ariel" as he's trying to get the Tams out of the hospital before the Hands of Blue get them:
-->'''Jayne:''' ''Shee-niou'' high-tech Alliance crap!
* In ''Series/{{Helix}}'', [[ResearchInc Arctic Biosystems]] security techs have 600 kV stun batons, which knock humans out cold, but only serve to irritate [[NotUsingTheZWord Vectors]].
* In the ''Series/{{Intelligence|2014}}'' episode "Athens" Dr. Cassidy improvises an electrical stun bomb to temporarily incapacitate [[MonsterOfTheWeek Jin Cong]] and one of his {{mooks}}.
* In ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'', Tandy decides to start teaching self defense, and asks Louis to volunteer for his demonstration on using a tazer. He reassures Louis that he will NOT shoot him, but accidentally hits the fire button anyway. He wonders how to make it stop, and the others suggest he removes his finger from the firing trigger.
* For the most part, the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' franchise pretends that stun guns don't exist, seeing as they would suck the drama out of chases and stand-offs.
* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', Parker loves zapping people with various tasers and other stun guns.
** Her old mentor/father-figure has two nearly identical specialty canes, one extends a six-inch blade from the tip, the other acts as a taser. When a hacker makes some rude comments about Parker, [[PapaWolf the old man places his cane's tip against the guy's crotch and asks him if he'd like to find out which one he was using today]] (later, the same guy continues making rude comments so he hits him in the neck with it and discovers it was the taser after all).
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s Others have weapons similar to tasers, with multiple settings. They also have dart guns, whose darts inflict an electrical shock that can kill or merely incapacitate a victim.
* ''Series/TheManFromUncle''. The U.N.C.L.E Special was originally meant to fire 'sleep darts', though later episodes vary as to how much emphasis is put on this.
* In the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' season 8 finale, Murdoch demonstrates his new invention: a "weaponised capacitor", which is basically a {{steampunk}} taser. He does warn that it could possibly kill someone.
* In the sci-fi parody ''Series/{{Quark}}'', gamma guns freeze people in mid-fall.
* ''Film/TheOtherGuys'': When Hoitz and Gamble are shocked with the tasers they both pass out.
* In ''Film/ThePerfectWeapon'', Detective Sanders knocks Tanaka out with a taser.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
** A newsreader reports that "[[RuleOfFunny rubber nuclear weapons]]" (presumably the WMD version of rubber bullets) were used to suppress a riot over the latest virtual reality game.
** A simulant incapacitates the crew with a laser weapon for a period of three weeks. Somehow, this works on all four of them, [[MST3KMantra never mind that two are flesh and blood, one is a droid and one is a hologram.]]
* The standard sidearm of a UEO naval officer in ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'' is a sleek-looking energy pistol with a variable charge. The lowest setting ("green") stuns, while the highest ("red") blows stuff up spectacularly.
* Lampshaded and averted (like several other sci-fi tropes) on the short-lived NBC series ''Something Is Out There''. The protagonists are being chased, so the cop tells his alien partner to set his weapon on stun and shoot them. [[WrongGenreSavvy She demands to know where he gets these silly ideas]]. Though this contradicts a scene in the premiere where his girlfriend picks up the female alien's stun gun and unknowingly zaps several people across the street.
* ''Series/{{Space 1999}}'' used laser Stun guns, which were called this despite a highly visible KILL option on the weapon.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** The team make use of Goa'uld-made semi-lethal stun guns, called "Zat'nik'tel" or "Zats": one shot will knock the target out (originally an AgonyBeam but no longer starting around season three), two shots are fatal, and three shots completely vaporize a body or a light object. The show's creators later regretted adding the third function, so the Zat never gets used this way anymore.
** There are also some training weapons called Intars. An intar is a close replica of another weapon, but with stun bursts instead of whatever the weapon normally fires, and is identifiable by a yellow light on the weapon. (This is because the war games were a know-your-enemy sort of thing; they were first encountered at a Goa'uld mock-up of an army camp, with all the soldiers given human names, etc.)
** And in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', ''all'' of the Wraith's handheld weaponry are alien stun-guns. Justified in that the Wraith ''eat'' their human enemies alive by draining their LifeEnergy, so they wouldn't want any wasteful deaths. Well, they do have heavier weaponry, but they only break that out in cases of extreme resistance or in order to teach humans a lesson (e.g. such as on Sateda).
** Ronon's pistol also has various power settings, which at the lower end seem to act in a similar manner. Ronon [[OneManArmy being Ronon]], however, he often has to be reminded to take it off of the [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill highest kill setting]].
--->'''Sheppard:''' That thing is set to stun, right?\\
'''Ronon:''' ''[{{beat}}]'' It is ''now''.
** When Sheppard later encounters the Travelers, he finds out that they have the same weapons, implying that Ronon has somehow obtained a Traveler gun (or they both shop at the same arms dealer).
** The Bedrosians in "New Ground" also have staff-like weapons that fire a yellow knockout blast. Their shields also double as stunners.
** The Tollan, being {{Technical Pacifist}}s, equip their security personnel with triangle-shaped stun guns.
* Phasers in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise developed with the times.
** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The original series]] featured a ''stun setting'' (which would handily knock out any non-[[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien godlike]] humanoid) and a ''kill setting'' which would [[DisintegratorRay make things go away]] (unless, again, the target was just plain immune).In "Omega Glory", Spock is too near the blast radius of a disintegrating phaser shot. He recovers, but from Kirk and [=McCoy=]'s reactions, there was a good chance that he could have been killed. "The Man Trap" and "The Conscience of the King" featured lethal settings that left a body, [[BloodlessCarnage with no visible damage, as per typical television standards of the time]]. Something similar may have featured in "What Are Little Girls Made Of", when an [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots android]] has a hole shot in it, revealing its electronic workings. Ironically, this is the first episode to show disintegration. On the other hand, [[MundaneUtility phasers also could heat rocks (or heat coffee)]] as a story might allow, which might have involved a special ''toast'' setting unmentioned in the canon media.In one of the episode novelizations, Yeoman Rand uses a phaser on a low setting to heat coffee when the power is out, somewhat to Kirk's surprise (and approval).
*** An intermediate "Heat" setting was mentioned in the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] Technical Manual.
*** "A Piece of the Action" established that phasers having stun settings isn't limited to just ''guns''--the ''Enterprise'' is entirely capable of non-lethal orbital bombardment.
** After ''[[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry The Undiscovered Country]]'', it became canon that movie-era phasers on Stun could kill at point blank range (to the head). On occasion, phasers have been set to "maximum stun" when facing unusually tough enemies, which is implied to have a higher risk of killing someone.
** Scriptwriter guidelines for ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' specified hand-phasers had about ten settings, from ''give someone a headache'' to ''vaporize a chunk of granite''. They started making marks on walls around 3 or 4. This was later expanded to sixteen settings, with level 3 capable of knocking an average humanoid unconscious for about an hour and level 7 treated as deadly force.
** Similarly, in one episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', we see Miles O'Brien [[DrivenToSuicide contemplating suicide]]. He cycles the phaser through about five yellow settings and then five red settings to what we can only assume is 'Maximum Kill', if we go by the Technical Manuals, maximum setting (setting 16) on a phaser will vaporize both him and the entire room he's in.
*** In keeping with the show's darker tone, ''Deep Space Nine'' actually downplayed phasers as a safe means to disable someone, generally treating them as "minimally lethal" rather than safely non-lethal. With a few early exceptions, phasering someone was always treated as serious rather than a safely reliable TapOnTheHead. The justification seemed to be that most non-Federation species (such as the Bajorans or Ferengi) don't have an explicit stun setting on their phasers, and Federation weapons are mentioned as being complex and difficult to maintain compared to everyone else's.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "North Star" a mook from a primitive SpaceWestern society puts a revolver to T'Pol's head, holding her hostage. Reed simply [[ShootTheHostage stuns T'Pol]], then the mook while he's still gaping at Reed's apparently ruthless action.
** In ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'', and sometimes ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', phasers and similar weapons can be seen to have no effect ''at all'', maybe causing a slight limp from a shoulder wound (Enterprise pilot). [[FridgeBrilliance So they work a bit like electrolasers, maybe?]]
** Stun grenades, utilizing phaser technology, have also been featured in ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]''.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Hunted", certain humans in the military of the planet Angosia are altered to increase their fighting abilities, and are also resistant to phaser stun.
** In the episode "Encounter at Farpoint", ''Q'' of all people calls the ''Enterprise'''s bridge crew out on this by pointing out that there are species to whom even a phaser's "stun" setting could be potentially fatal. Granted, it's [[{{Jerkass}} Q]], but here [[JerkassHasAPoint he may just have a point]].
*** Apparently confirmed in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', where it's revealed that Andorians, due to their higher metabolic rate, are much more susceptible to phaser fire than humans. Even a graze from anything set above stun is potentially lethal to them, which a human could simply shrug off with some minor burns.
** Whether or not being hit by a phaser actually hurts seems to vary depending on story needs. In one BodyHorror moment from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', a character turns his phaser, set to kill, on himself and endures an agonizing death as his body is burned away.
** In [[Film/StarTrek2009 the 2009 film]], switching a hand phaser to stun actually causes the muzzle to flip itself around; stun shots are fired from a blue lens and kill shots from a red one.
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard''. In "The End is the Beginning", one character picks up a Romulan disruptor and uses it on a Romulan assassin. She's never shot anyone before, and is visibly distressed when informed that Romulan weapons don't have a stun setting.
* Darien Lambert in ''Series/TimeTrax'' is equipped with a Micro-Pellet Projection Tube, disguised as an ordinary car alarm keychain. Two of its buttons fire stun pellets (green and blue), which stun a person either for a few minutes or a few hours. The third button is for dosing the target with TXP, a drug required for TimeTravel.
* ''Series/{{The Tomorrow People|2013}}'' used stun guns, due to the "Prime Barrier" preventing them from killing.
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'':
** In "Meat", Torchwood use stun guns against people who they don't think are dangerous. It turns out these people have guns and Ianto ends up tasering someone in the forehead, saying "Pray you survive." Indeed.
** Also used in "They Keep Killing Susie".
--->'''Jack:''' This is for Ianto! Risen Mitten, Life Knife, and that old classic... [[{{Pun}} Stun Gun]]!
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': Veronica's signature weapon is a taser that she often used to incapacitate opponents, as being a [[TeensAreShort petite]] teen [[AmateurSleuth sleuth]], she's too young to carry a firearm and too small to directly take on most opponents.
* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' has the Electo-Muscular Disruptors (usually shortened to [=EMDs=]), mean to help the cast non-lethally take down creatures. Though they're about the size of a normal submachine gun, Matt claims that they can take down a fully grown ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'', much to Becker's skepticism. [[spoiler:Matt finally gets to put this to the test in the fifth episode of Series 5, and the EMD does ''not'' disappoint. In a CallBack to when the EMD was first introduced, Becker admits he was wrong]].
* The Tesla guns (designed, as one would expect in this series, by UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla himself) in ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' are exactly this.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* [[Wrestling/JacquesRougeau The Mountie]] zapped his opponents after defeating them.
* Wrestling/HarleyRace helped Wrestling/{{Vader}} win a Texas Death Match in Wrestling/{{WCW}} by shooting [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] with a tazer.
* Wrestling/ScottHall, disguised as a security officer, helped Wrestling/KevinNash beat Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} to win the WCW World Championship by zapping Goldberg in the chest with a taser.
* Wrestling/KurtAngle got his revenge for being thrown off a balcony by Wrestling/BigShow by shooting Show with a tranquilizer dart.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* Radio/TheGreenHornet used a gas gun to [[InstantSedation knock out]] criminals (or anyone else he needed to shoot).
* Spoofed in ''Kremmen of the Star Corps'' with the Valium Ray. Also...
-->'''Karla:''' Should we set our lasers on stun?\\
'''Captain Kremmen:''' No, this is serious. Set them on [[AgonyBeam Cringing Agony]]!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* "The List of Character Survival Techniques" ([[http://home.planet.nl/~jvdriel/survivaladvice.txt v.1.5]]) recommends carrying a stun weapon such as tasers and [[InstantSedation knockout poison darts]] -- sooner or later your teammate ''will'' catch DemonicPossession, HatePlague or something. And considering it as a primary weapon, to reduce [[CycleOfRevenge inevitable complications]].
* Gas Grenades are a weapon that can be used by the crew-player in the boardgame ''TabletopGame/TheAwfulGreenThingsFromOuterSpace''; the effect on the Things (good, bad or indifferent) is randomly determined for each game, but any crew present when one gets set off are knocked unconscious for a turn.
* In ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', the Battlemech taser is a stun gun on steroids. It uses a modified [[MagneticWeapons Gauss Rifle]] mechanism to fire two armor-piercing harpoons into enemy [[HumongousMecha battlemechs]], then pumps it with electricity to fry the mech's electronics, allowing it to be salvaged mostly intact. Sadly, it doesn't cause the violently twitching that a stungun causes against meatbags, as battlemech's artificial muscles are immune to it courtesy of their extreme electrical resistance. The weapon also has a [[CriticalFailure small chance of feedback shocking the user]], and will violently [[MadeOfExplodium explode when damaged]].
* One ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' splatbook included two variants. First, one that used a moderate charge laser between the contacts to ionize the air, turning it into something similar to the GURPS electrolaser - and another that was the same thing, but built into a cyber arm.
* The ''TabletopGame/DarkConspiracy'' supplement ''Darktek'' had the "E.T. Stun Gun". It fired a laser to ionize the air, then discharged an electric current that followed the ionization path.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: High-Tech'' has tasers/batons as well as taser guns — which are nearly useless against people wearing anything but normal clothing. By ''Ultra-Tech'' they've been replaced with [[LightningGun electrolasers]]. Incidentally, the latter cause stunning effects only in the early editions of the game, but in 4th edition, the laser element causes a modicum of burning damage.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has stun batons, tasers, stun gloves, etc.
** Even those who specialize in firearms can get in the game, with Gel Rounds (do Stun damage, not good with Armor) and Stick and Shock ammo (use electricity to Stun people). Of course, these aren't ''fully'' non-lethal, and [=GMs=] are invited to take advantage of the fact that Gel Rounds can go through eyes and hit the brain, and Stick and Shock might do something nasty to a grunt with a heart condition.
** One of the provisions of Dunkelzhun's will is a large sum of cash for the developer of an effective, safe, stun weapon. 15 in-game years later, there is still mention from time to time of companies trying to win that prize.
** This is possibly a nod toward GameplayAndStoryIntegration. The rules of the game allow for two separate [[HitPoint damage tracks]]: Physical and Stun. As the name implies, Stun weapons cause Stun damage, but so do things like physical exhaustion (from a long day of work), powerful medications, and [[CastFromHitPoints casting spells]]. Taking Stun damage in excess of your Stun track will instantly knock you out, but the overflow carries over to physical damage where it is cumulative with existing wounds; if you were about to pass out from stress anyway (9 boxes out of 10 on the Stun track) and had a couple of light Physicals wound (2 boxes out of 10 on the Physical track) and you get hit with an instant-KO shot (10 boxes out of 10 on the Stun track), the Stun overflow can push through and kill you outright.
* ''TabletopGame/StarFrontiers'' has electrostunners (ranged stunning weapons).
* A relative of the above FASA property, the tabletop ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' RPG features a variety of stun weapons. [[InstantSedation Chemical]], [[StaticStunGun electrical]], and [[SonicStunner sonic]] stun weapons are available as ranged weapons, though stun batons are also available. An insidious item known as the neural whip could also technically be used to stun victims, but prolonged use could result in crippling injuries and permanent loss of attribute points.
* Believe it or not, the normally ultra-lethal ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' has stun guns, along with tanglers (which strangle you to death if you get hit in the neck, otherwise they just immobilize a body part).
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' has stunners, electrolasers that deal some damage and the "shock" status effect, shock batons, shock gloves, and [[BioAugmentation eelware]] are melee weapons that do practically the same thing. Also [[AgonyBeam agonizers]] use microwaves to inflict incapacitating pain without damage (unless set to "roast"), and standard laser guns have a "stun" setting that uses a set of quick pulses to achieve a flashbang-like effect.
* ''TabletopGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' supplement ''Uncanny X-Men'' boxed set, "Adventure Book"
** In Chapter 4 "Time Out" the Mandrill's PoweredArmor-wearing soldiers carry neurostunners so they can take down the heroes without killing them.
** Chapter 5 "Nightmare in New Guinea"
*** The {{PC}}s are at an audience with the Mandrill when he decides to capture them. He and his soldiers open fire on them with [[StunGuns neurostunner pistols]] that cause unconsciousness.
*** While the {{PC}}s are escaping from Mandrill's base, [[KnockoutAmbush one his soldiers wearing a battlesuit attacks them]]. She uses a neurostunner built into her PoweredArmor to knock them out.
* ''Star Trek: The Role Playing Game'' phasers had "stun", "wide angle stun" and "heavy stun" settings similar to its source material. Other stunning weapons (such as Gorn stunners) were detailed in supplements.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' most Ray guns have a stun setting built in, but there are also spasm rods, odd pronged batons that produce a shimmering sphere that can be used to both stun people in melee and to deflect Ray fire.
* ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'' has the air pistol and air rifle, meant to deliver a tranquilizer round, though some characters don't hesitate to use more deadly payloads.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' naturally has its share of this (especially in earlier editions with their plentiful save-or-die effects, where merely falling unconscious for an hour or two from a single failed saving throw could be considered positively merciful).
** The most iconic example are probably drow hand crossbows and their small but typically sleep drug-coated quarrels.
** ''Fiend Folio''. The red urchin fired spines tipped with a venom that put victims that failed a saving throw to sleep for 1-4 minutes.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has darts filled with Neurostun or Narcoject, which can be fired from pistols and rifles.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' had the snub pistol which could be loaded with tranquilizer rounds, as described in Book 4 ''Mercenary''. Any creature hit by one would be asleep shortly. In Adventure 2 ''Research Station Gamma'' the Animal Care Robots used them to capture escaped lab animals.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/ArmoryAndMachine'' has the Stun Baton skill, which zaps an enemy to deal high damage to their shields and also "stuns" them by interrupting their current move, causing it to fail.
* Players could control Mumbo Jumbo as a playable character in the sequel to ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''. His weapon, the Zap Stick, shot a continuous stream of sparks that would immobilize the victim and cause them to babble incoherently until they die. It was wonderful.
--> DOW-BA-LA-DOW-BA-LA-DOW-BA-LA-DOW-BA-LA-DOW-BA-LA-DOW-BA-LA-AAAARRGHHH !!!
* The infamous "One-Two Punch" in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'' involves first stunning an enemy with Electro Bolt and then whacking them upside the head with your wrench. Shooting a pool of water not only hits every Splicer in that pool, but kills them instead of merely stunning.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', electric elemental damage can stun enemies.
* Eddie Riggs can stun the various animals in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', and then ride them, by calling down lightning with his guitar.
* The Soviet Telsa Pistol used by commissars in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3: Paradox'' is one of these, useful to stopping deserters or for stunning enemy soldiers alike.
* ''VideoGame/CustomRobo'' has the Stun, Ion and Thunderbolt guns, electrical weapons that stagger the opponent for an extended time if they hit.
* The stun baton in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' is electric and awesome. The first hit would stop a regular human in the ass. If the second his is applied to their buttocks then they would be knocked out. Sometimes it takes more than two hits if not applied to the behind.
* One of the weapons available to Adam Jensen in ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' is a taser pistol which, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome surprisingly]], must be reloaded after every shot. Luckily that's enough to take down basically any one person he fights.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' crosses this with CarryABigStick in form of X-2 Antenna, [[ImprovisedWeapon which you wrench out from a radio dish]] as part of a ''Old World Blues'' DLC quest. It stays electrified after that and deals additional damage to robots and people in PoweredArmor, has insane reach and causes knockback, but is rather heavy. It also has a special VATS move that deals quadruple damage (doubled by VATS, then doubled once more by special itself), making it the strongest non-explosive attack in the game.
* In ''VideoGame/FightingForce'' Some mooks near the end of the game have an arm that can shock the player, knocking them down and taking some health.
* The Thunder branch of spells in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'' may inflict the "Stunned" status condition, preventing the victim from moving until it wears off.
* In ''VideoGame/FindTheCure'' the infirmary is guarded by an electrical turret that incapacitates without killing.
* The advanced edition of ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' introduces weapons that both ionize the targeted systems and stun anyone nearby.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' represents [[StatusEffects stunning]] as two bolts of lightning alongside the afflicted character.
* In ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'', using a taser will render the victim unconscious for the remainder of the mission.
* ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'''s Storm Dragon style does this. It becomes a GameBreaker for many fights, since harmonic combos with Storm Dragon usually gives you Focus drops. Focus powers your BulletTime, so you can effectively stay unhittable and kill everything in a room in maybe 4 seconds of real-time.
* ''VideoGame/InvisibleInc'': Tasers are standard issue to your starting agents and normally knocks out enemies for three turns, while letting agents stand on knocked out enemies to extend the knockout duration. More powerful variants exist that are required for dealing with more powerful enemies.
* ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|Sons of Liberty}}'' saw Snake infiltrating the tanker armed only with a modified Beretta M9 designed to fire anesthetic darts. Suitable weaponry for infiltrating a tanker filled with loyal US Marines, less suitable weaponry for infiltrating a tanker now filled with faceless terrorists.
** Ironically, the lethal weapons were almost universally outclassed by the M9 since it's perfectly silent, and enemy soldiers finding unconscious guards didn't sound an alarm. Not to mention in most cases you only needed one dart per guard; a soldier hit in the arm by the M9 would walk around for a bit [[InstantSedation and then fall asleep]]. A soldier hit in the arm with lethal weapons would sound an alarm and return fire.
*** It's less useful on higher difficultly settings, as the effect wouldn't last all that long. It's more useful for gaining [[GottaCatchEmAll dogtags]], however -- a tranquilized guard's tags can be stolen once he wakes up, a dead one's are off-limits until you go far away enough from the room he's in that he respawns.
** Later in the game it's possible to find a "[=PSG1-T=]", a version of the SniperRifle that fires tranquillizer darts, and the end game [[KatanasAreJustBetter high-frequency blade]] has a stun setting (beating people with the blunt side of the blade, presumably). These exist solely to enable {{Pacifist Run}}s.
** In [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots the fourth game]] you have a Ruger Mk II and can unlock the [[VideoGame/{{Boktai}} Solar Gun]], which is unable to damage anyone (except Vamp) but is ''very'' good at stunning and knocking down opponents.
*** In the fourth game, you have a stun ''[[UpToEleven knife]]''. You can also stun people by sneaking up on them with Metal Gear Mk. II and smacking them with its manipulator.
** [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater The third game]] (and its sequels ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'') had the [=Mk22=] and Mosin Nagant. The latter is also in ''[=MGS4=]'', and ''Peace Walker'' also has a stun rod in place of ''[=MGS3=]'''s knife, as well as a shotgun that fires rubber slugs.
** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Metal Gear Solid V]]'' gives us the Wu Silent pistol, which is the silenced tranquiliser pistol that's been a staple of the series since ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and the Urugan-5, which fills the role the Rubber Slug Shotgun did in ''Peace Walker'', except as [[RevolversAreJustBetter a 5-shot revolver]]. It's also possible to develop rifles that fire rubber bullets.
* In ''VideoGame/UrbanChaosRiotResponse'', if you taze someone for too long they will burst into flames, killing them.
** The same happens in the ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' series.
*** [[http://news.aol.com/article/man-catches-fire-after-being-tasered/580031 The same thing has happened in real life, too.]]
* ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' features the Spark Shock as Spark Man's weapon, which allows Mega Man to paralyze enemies that aren't immune to it. Unfortunately, it's a UselessUsefulSpell by virtue of preventing weapon switching until it wears off, and dealing no damage by itself. [[VideoGame/MegaManIII The Game Boy version]] gave it a significant BalanceBuff by allowing the player to switch weapons while there's a paralyzed enemy on screen.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'', paralysis is an effect typically associated with the Elec type. This works in reverse, as well, as TheParalyzer Flash Man became Elec type in [=MMBN3=].
* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'''s electricity-based Wave Beam may disable the target if charged. Also, Samus' pistol in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' fires a bolt of what is presumably electricity which stops foes in their tracks, complete with the coursing arcs.
* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' has this for ''cars''.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Noita}}'', wet creatures struck with Lightning attacks will be temporarily stunned with the traditional white lightning running over their body.
* ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' has the van de Graaf pistol, which fires a short-ranged arc of lightning does almost no damage but stuns an enemy for several seconds or until they are damaged. It's most useful for crowd control or allowing Konoko to get into position for a [[BackStab Backbreaker]].
* Taser units in ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' can stun you with their tasers, causing you to fire your gun uncontrollably. Unless another player kills the Taser or you happen to shoot him with your uncontrolled firing, you'll get incapacitated. [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 The sequel]] keeps them the same but the game also adds a stun gun as a melee weapon that can stun any enemy except the Bulldozer.
* ''VideoGame/PeoplePlayground'': The Stunner gun launches an electric energy packet and it immobilizes humans. It's one of the few weapons that can neutralize people without killing, but overusing it might fry them alive and kill them as a result.
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', [[spoiler:Manfred von Karma]] uses one of these on Phoenix and Maya to steal incriminating evidence from them. Maya somehow holds the static charge into the next day, and zaps Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Gumshoe in the courtroom lobby.
* Most ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'''s lightning attacks come with a paralysis side-effect. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Don't count on that to have an advantage if you're not using Thunder Wave, though, but do expect paralysis to occur often on your team members]]. Even when the paralysis is not inflicted by an Electric-type attack (for example, Body Slam or Stun Spore), the effect is represented by electric sparks covering the victim.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'': In the [[VideoGameRemake remake]], Jill can acquire one of these as a defensive weapon. In ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheUmbrellaChronicles The Umbrella Chronicles]]'', it is her counter move, frying a zombie by tazing them in the stomach.
* In ''VideoGame/RWBYAmityArena'', there are two characters who uses this trope - Nolan, whose Stun Rod is practically a DiskOneNuke as you get him early on, cost the least amount of Aura to deploy and can stop just about anything and anyone, and Neptune, who comes later on but has the added abilities of causing a stun just by being deployed and being able to shoot and stun his opponents.
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'': There's a scene in the DLC where Yuri Watanabe, [[WeUsedToBeFriends formerly]] Spidey's FriendOnTheForce, is attempting to shoot [[SuperMobBoss Hammerhead]] to death, but Peter tries to prevent her from doing so. Yuri immobilizes Peter by shooting him with electric restraining cables obtained from [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Sable Incorporated]], preventing him from stepping in long enough for her to [[BoomHeadshot shoot Hammerhead]]. This scene shows that, despite Yuri JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in her revenge against Hammerhead, she refuses to kill Spider-Man for opposing her.
* The Shock Trap from ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront2015'' is an electronic mine which immobilizes any enemy within range and kills them if they fail to struggle loose in five seconds
** Both R2-D2 and Lando Calrissan can use these Traps as one of their abilities, though Lando's variant of the above is not only more powerful, but also disguises itself as a power-up. R2's is a more literal gun, shooting straight out of his body.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperScribblenauts'', shooting something with electricity gives them the "vegetative" adjective. This is extremely effective due to the fact that it can easily put down characters that are virtually invincible.
* ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' has the air taser, an electroshock weapon that is notable for three major attributes--firstly, it has infinite ammo, which is quite handy in an FPS. Secondly, it has infinite range--if you can see it, you can shoot it with the air taser. Finally, while stunning opponents via electric shock, holding down the trigger too long results in the victim ''bursting into flames'' while screaming loudly and spasming wildly. Fans widely consider this 'side effect' to be gruesomely hilarious. Conversely, the hand taser available in the sequel is a standard contact-type stun weapon similar to a real-life taser. It doesn't have the same range, utility, or entertainment value as the air taser, and is therefore uninteresting to expound upon.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' has Purge (hits target with lightning), which removes buffs but slows the target a great deal, as well as Storm Bolt, an electrically-charged hammer that stuns the target. Used by name without involving electricity, Thunder Clap also slows enemies by slamming the ground.
* In the ''Videogame/{{X}}-Universe'', the Ion Disruptor acts like an [[ChainLightning arcing]] [[LightningGun lightning ray]] against ships, which does good shield damage but is effectively useless against the hull. Ion Disruptors are also the only way to capture {{Space|Whale}}flies - zap a spacefly with the disruptor as it zips past, and it will be stunned long enough for the spaceship to scoop it up with a spacefly collector. The spacefly can then be sold to the [[ProudWarriorRace Split Dynasty]] to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild power their reactors]] or to the {{Space Pirate}}s for pretty much the same purpose.
* ''VideoGame/XCom''
** ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' has stun rods, cattle prod-like tools used to stun aliens for capture. They can also stun your own soldiers when they get mind-controlled, or civilians to stop their tendency to run into enemy fire.
** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' has the Arc Thrower, a short-ranged electrolaser designed and invented as a research project after you research the alien invaders' xeno-biology. It works better the less health the target has, and once the stun procs, the alien will stay unconscious until the end of the mission. Later projects in the Foundry increase its effectiveness to make stuns easier, and give it an extra role in [[HackYourEnemy hacking]] alien Drones and repairing mechanical units[[labelnote:*]][[AttackDrone SHIVs]], other hacked Drones and, in ''[[ExpansionPack Enemy Within]]'', [[{{Cyborg}} MEC Troopers]] and [[MindControl mind-controlled]] Mechtoids.[[/labelnote]]. It should be noted that each of these uses consume one charge of the Arc Thrower's very limited pool.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' was coded to react differently based on the lethal force the player used. In the immediate sense, death screams were louder than anything short of an explosive, judging by AI reaction to noise. More long term, some [=NPCs=] liked taking prisoners or avoiding combat, some liked to shoot things. The game featured a silent 'minicrossbow' that fired tranquilizer darts, a riot prod that looked like a stun gun on steroids with a healthy dose of [[TimTaylorTechnology More Power]], and tear gas. There was also a baton which was mainly used for one hit knock out if you could sneak up on someone from behind, though it could be used for a frontal assault if the player was inclined to commit suicide by actually trying to use it on an enemy firing back. The game was inconsistent when determining the casualties caused by the player, however, occasionally marking the player as overly violent because of how many targets had been 'removed' from combat rather than how many had been killed outright.
** Many players tried to manage {{pacifist run}}s with these tools, though the first game forced one kill, unless exploits were used, and the second game had common high-end mooks that couldn't be knocked out. The third game was more forgiving and actually rewarded players for leaving everyone alive.
** The sequel ''[[VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar Invisible War]]'' kept these weapons, although the electric prod became worthless while the simple plastic stick is absolutely terrifying in close combat. Also added was a player-controlled drone that could self-destruct with an electric stun blast. Two drones would down most enemies. A definitive game breaker in that the player could easily find a source of unlimited power in most maps from which all enemies could be neutralized without any danger to the player.
** The prequel ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' has two of its non-lethal weapons in this vein: one (the Buzzkill) fires a shock dart, causing the target to twitch for a few seconds and quietly collapse. The other one (the PEPS) fires a concussion wave that can knock out several targets, although, unlike the shocker, a knockout is not guaranteed. The game also allows the player to knock out target with a well-placed punch or a choke-hold (depending on the animation) or to use the landing system. That or use the tranquilizer rifle.
* ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'' includes a hostile robot that shoots Agent 5 with a tranquilizer dart just as he arrives, and the player has to make an antidote for it to go anywhere else in the time period. After taking down the robot, Agent 5 can also take its gun, which proves useful in defeating [[spoiler:[[BigBad Elliot Sinclair]] ]]. The remake ''Pegasus Prime'' redesigns the robot's stun gun into a plasma sniper rifle, though only the darts are left when you can get it.
* The ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'' series has many weapons that only cause stun damage so you can collect live aliens. The [[VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense first game]] started the player off with the melee-only Stun Rod, which was of at best limited use aside from an occasional attack of opportunity, while the other side had a sort of TechnoBabble-powered flashbang fired from a small grenade launcher. ''[[VideoGame/XComApocalypse Apocalypse]]'' addressed this by providing the taser-like Stun Grapple and Stun Gas grenades.
** The Stun Rod's ''[[VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep Terror From The Deep]]'' equivalent, the Thermal Taser, is incredibly useful for one reason: Lobstermen, which are [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]], take full damage from the Taser. Since the only other weapon that does full or more damage to Lobstermen is the equally short-ranged [[{{Vibroweapon}} VibroBlade]] weapons, the Taser can be useful if you encounter Lobstermen before you've researched either the blades or the Thermal Shok Launcher.
** The Firaxis [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown remake]] replaces the Stun Rod with the Arc Thrower, which must be researched first after performing an autopsy on an alien (which determines that their central nervous system is similar to ours). The Arc Thrower is not a melee weapon, but it must be fired at a very close range. The basic Arc Thrower only has a 70% chance of working, though, and you only get 2 shots with it per mission. Once you build the Foundry, you can upgrade the Arc Thrower to have a higher chance of stunning an alien (and also make it work on new types of aliens). The weapon is best used by the Assault class who have the Lightning Reflex ability, allowing them to dodge the first alien Overwatch shot (i.e. they can run up to the enemy and use the Arc Thrower without being shot).
* In the ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' series, Sam's rifle fires a variety of knock-out weapons, including electric bullets, airfoil rounds (which work via [[TapOnTheHead blunt trauma to the head]]), and gas grenades. ''Chaos Theory'' has a level where the enemies are equipped with the airfoil rounds. Sam correctly identifies these as [[InsistentTerminology "Less-Than-Lethal"]] weapons; they are definitely ''not'' non-lethal.
** Also in ''Chaos Theory'', the captain of the ship in the second mission actually ''dies'' if you try to knock him out (presumably from a heart condition or something). It doesn't count as a kill in your mission stats, but if you look at his body in thermal vision you can see it cooling down to corpse temperature. Same with one of the mafiosos in Kalinatek in the first game guarding the computer to open the fire doors.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has [[TheGunslinger gunslinging]] Jesiah Black use "stun bullets" once, with no further elaboration.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}: Zero Mission,'' Samus is shot down on her first attempt to escape Zebes; in the crash, she loses her armor and has to infiltrate the Space Pirate mothership armed with only a stun gun. The gun has a ridiculously long recharge time, and it only stuns enemies if fired with a full charge; otherwise it just ticks them off. Worse, enemies shot with a full charge only stay stunned for three seconds, after which they wake up and sound the alarm, assuming Samus isn't hidden when they do wake up (which, given the above, is rather difficult to actually manage). Samus herself [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the gun's many failings in monologue:
--> "All I had for protection was my rather useless emergency pistol..."
* Done realistically in a mission for ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'', in which your GDI riot troops are equipped with rubber bullets to put down protests. Using one causes protestors to give up and go home, while using too many will kill the target (and lose you the mission).
** Again in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'', the training levels have your troops clearly shooting at other Allied troops, with the justification being that everyone on the field is using rubber bullets.
* ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' has the Van de Graf pistol, which fires a short-ranged bolt of electricity to briefly stun enemies. It does no damage, but gives time to position oneself for a [[BackStab Backbreaker]] or other hand-to-hand attack.
* ''Videogame/{{Fallout 3}}'' features the [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mesmetron Mesmetron]], an experimental weapon that has a 50% chance of stunning someone, a 30% of making them very angry and a 20% chance of making ''their head explode.''
* ''VideoGame/SWAT4'' features the full range of ''less lethal'' weapons at the disposal of major metropolitan police forces in the US, including CS grenades, Stinger grenades (fragmentation with rubber shrapnel), tasers, pepper spray, beanbag shotguns[[note]] actually, beanbag ''cartridges'', but they're loaded into designated less-lethal shotguns painted green to avoid confusion.[[/note]] and paintball guns loaded with pepper balls. All this gear is ''necessary'' to achieve high or even qualifying scores, since every casualty, suspect or victim, counts against your final score.
* ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way'' features an electric stun gun (the hand-to-hand kind) and a CT-180 utility launcher that can be loaded with [[InstantSedation tranquilizer darts]] which will both quickly and [[StealthBasedGame quietly]] take down opponents, leaving them alive. Sadly, they recover inside only a few minutes, and then will manifest weapons (even if searched and disarmed) shortly after that, providing an incentive to take out opponents in a more lethal fashion.
* The only weapon you get in ''VideoGame/{{Hydrophobia}}'' is a stun gun, you're meant to use it to keep enemies at bay while you use the environment to kill them but oddly for this trope it can kill if you shoot it enough times....or change the ammo to something more lethal.
* In ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' the Arm Spider unit is armed with a stunner, although this is more probably a weapon to disable ''technology''. The spin-off ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'' has magical stun weapons used by Aramonian Mage Archers and Verunan Lighthouses. Interestingly, the logo for the stun arrow is an arrow with a pair of magically glowing handcuffs wrapped around it.
* In the later ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' games, your weapon is the Neural Stunner. Most enemies stay "stunned" permanently, but some revive after a few seconds.
* ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' has the Gas Arrows, which do not do any damage but will instantly knock people unconscious, regardless of how alert they are. Given how incredibly useful this is in this game, they are quite rare.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars''. The player can purchase a "Teaser", which shocks your target for as long as you hold the trigger. Hold it too long, though, and they'll [[VideogameCrueltyPotential burst into flame]], instantly giving you a one-star Wanted level.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' has a stun gun as one of the available weapons. It won't set your targets on fire, but downing someone with it is basically the same as killing them with a conventional firearm-they won't get back up, and other characters will react the same as if you had shot the target with a real gun.
* Weapons called "Stun Rods" appear in the hands of late-game mooks in''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5''. It's a bit of a misnomer, though: in 4 they do about the same amount of damage as being shot in the face with a [[GatlingGood Gatling Gun]], and in 5 they instantly put you into [[ControlledHelplessness Dying status]]. You can also buy a Stun Rod in 5 and use it yourself; it is extremely powerful and works wonders for crowd control and, best of all, it doesn't use any ammo.
* [[spoiler: Manfred von Karma]] from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' uses a taser to knock out Phoenix and Maya to recover evidence that could incriminate them. Maya somehow holds the charge from it into the next day, and zaps Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Gumshoe in the courtroom lobby, though it isn't strong enough to knock them out.
* In ''VideoGame/LowGMan'', the titular character carries the electro-magnetic disruptor pistol, an infinite-ammo weapon that can be used to stun enemies before taking them out with the armor-piercing spear. It actually becomes a SpreadShot on higher levels.
* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/EarthboundBeginnings'', one of the weapons Lloyd can equip is a Stun Gun. It boosts his offense stat by 15. It's the first "gun" weapon available to him.
** Likewise, one of Jeff's early weapons in the sequel ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' is also a Stun Gun. It boosts his offense stat by 24 when equipped.
* ''VideoGame/HeatSignature'' has concussive guns, and are the only type of guns [[ThouShaltNotKill Offworld Security]] will use against infiltrators. They work just like regular firearms, but leave their targets unconscious instead of dead, making them useful for Bloodless clauses, and always come with the Rechargeable tag, so one will always have 16 shots of a concussive gun after stopping by a station. However, they must be unlocked in order to purchase them (and getting an Offworld Security mission or ship isn't always guaranteed), they do not use standard ammo (so those 16 shots will also be the ''only'' shots you have in that gun for that mission), are never Piercing (meaning armored enemies are [[DestinationDefenestration almost]] immune to them), and are subject to the rest of the drawbacks of firearms.
* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'': Wielded by Kocho Shuyona. First shown in [=YandereDev's=] ''Let's Examine [[VideoGame/Persona5 Persona]]'' series of videos, where he is seen in concept art wielding an [=X-26=] Taser. Sure enough, when he was introduced into the game several months later, he has that taser on him and ''will'' use it on Ayano without hesitation.
* One unique aspect to ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' as a fighting game is the prevalence of moves that make an enemy helpless, with the most famous being Subzero's Ice Ball and Scorpion's Harpoon. In contrast, many other fighting games only feature stunning when a character takes too many heavy damage hits in a short time or else the stunning moves are restricted to Super Attacks such as in ''Darkstalkers 3''. As for actual stun guns, Stryker will use one during his X-Ray attack in ''Mortal Kombat 9''.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'', the Focus series of abilities such as Barret's Focused Shot. These types of abilities have poor damage (comparable to a few weak hits in a combo) but they do a large amount of damage to an enemy's Stagger Gauge especially if the enemy is being pressured, whereas all your other attacks that don't exploit a weakness will barely make a tick.
* In ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder'', heroes that have attacks that are rated 'A' in stagger (these are almost always a DashAttack) will usually only have a 'C' in damage. These attacks do average damage, but will greatly deplete a boss or EliteMook's stagger gauge.
* ''VideoGame/EnemyOnBoard'': One of the weapons the crew members can wield includes a laser gun that fires a blue ball of light that holds the aliens in place for a few seconds.
* In ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'', SIG MCX's special attack has her pull out a Taser and shoot it at the nearest enemy, inflicting extra damage and debuffs.
* ''VideoGame/SpiderAndWeb'': The pulse guns shoot bolts of energy that knock people out, while shooting most inanimate objects produces the result: "The [object] showers a corona of sparks. Lacking a nervous system, however, it is unaffected by the pulse."
* In ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 4'', some [[DirtyCop police officers]] carry single-use stun guns that shock and immobilize enemies. They can also be used on arcade machines to unlock [[NostalgiaLevel hidden stages based on stages from previous games]].
* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' has tranquilizer rounds for the pistol, which does fixed (very low) damage against human foes (and even less so against body armour) with its only advantage being [[TechnicalPacifist that it counts as nonlethal incapacitation]]. They're even usable against bosses, although they will simply be treated as regular (but much less damaging) bullets against them and subsequent cutscenes will ignore said bosses being hopped up on enough tranquilizer to put a herd of elephants to sleep. [[spoiler:This means that if you bring down Darcy with them in the endgame, he'll presumably suffer an allergic reaction to them since he dies anyway.]]
* You can craft these in ''VideoGame/ArkSurvivalEvolved'', an arrow-based version for your bow and crossbow and two bullet-based versions for the longneck rifle. Despite the numerous fantastical elements in the game, these darts are treated fairly realistically -- larger creatures need multiple darts to knock unconscious, and the effect isn't instantaneous (though still extremely fast, but that's a concession to gameplay).
* In ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' Mordecai uses a tranq dart on Bloodwing after she is captured, experimented on and attacks the player, in an attempt to calm her down to bring her back to Sanctuary. This triggers possibly one of the saddest lines in the game:
-->'''Mordecai:''' I'm loading the tranq dart! Tranquila Blood! This won't hurt, I promise.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx''
** JC's mini-crossbow in the first game can be loaded with Tranquilizer Darts which can knock a target out cold indefinitely when shot in the head, otherwise the victim will run around yelling for help before falling unconscious. When the PC is shot with a tranquilizer dart, it causes the screen to darken and sway, but the nanotechnology takes care of the venom fairly rapidly. Of course the game is about lies and conspiracy and those tranquilizer darts are in all probability some form of lethal poison. Which is why ''you'' take damage when you are hit by them.
** Adam Jensen continues, or rather set the precedent for JC to follow in ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', and has access to a tranquillizer rifle.
* In ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'', a robot shoots Agent 5 with one just after he enters one of the time zones, and he has to make an antidote to neutralize it before exploring the rest of the time zone. When the dart is analyzed, the tranquilizer in question is listed as dimenhydrinate, which would presumably render Agent 5 unconscious, rather than kill him. Later on, Agent 5 can also steal the robot's dart gun and use it to take down the BigBad at the endgame.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has the Dart Gun, a makeshift crossbow that fires throwing darts (the kind used in pubs) tipped with radscorpion venom. The damage is pitiful, but it cripples the target's limbs completely, preventing them from moving or fighting effectively (note that radscorpion venom administered the natural way -- from a radscorpion stinger -- causes damage over time, not paralysis).
* The dart gun in ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' fires tranq darts meant for big game animals, and thus each shot result in an instakill.
* James Bond again:
** ''VideoGame/AgentUnderFire'', ''VideoGame/{{Nightfire}},'' and ''VideoGame/EverythingOrNothing'' use these in stealth missions where lethality isn't an option...or where shooting, even with a HollywoodSilencer, will still cause guards to cry out in pain. Uniquely, ''Everything or Nothing'' is the only game in which the dart-gun appears in more than one level.
* The Genesis version of ''VideoGame/{{Jurassic Park|RampageEdition}}'' limited Dr. Grant exclusively to non-lethal guns like tranquilizers, tasers, grenades and sedative-laced rockets, only the last of which put down dinosaurs indefinitely. The ActionizedSequel ''Rampage Edition'' added in some more deadly guns and removed the possibility for enemies to get back up (they'll still flash and disappear even if you are just using the tranq guns on them).
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': Hitting somebody in the head or the heart with the tranquilizing weapons (that is, not the stun grenades or the taser-like weapons) knocks out instantly while hitting the belly or the limbs delays the effect. Some of the boss characters are bizarrely resilient to tranquilizer rounds, though, and can take several rounds to the head before passing out, even though Otacon insists that the tranquilizer rounds are potent enough to knock out an elephant. It's worth pointing out that the same bosses can take a similar number of bullets to the head without dying.
* Used frequently in the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series, with Tranq Bombs, Tranq S bowgun ammo, and even Tranq Throwing Knives, required for monster capture quests. The monster has to be weakened to the brink of death for them to work, and the effects will only kick in if the monster's in a trap.
* In ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenNES'', after Ryu takes care of the first boss, he is approached by Irene Lew (who goes unnamed at that point). He tells her to go away, and she appears to comply...only to pull out a tranquilizer gun and shoot Ryu. Since a bang is heard, and you only see Ryu’s shocked face, it would seem as if Ryu died. Cue Act 2, where Ryu wakes up in a cell, and Irene gives Ryu a statue, telling him to escape. This begins the next stage.
* A stock weapon in the ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' series, essential in the levels where "no casualties" is the requirement.
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Ana's sleep dart temporarily puts a target to sleep for 5 seconds, but they instantly wake up if they take any damage.
* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' has a wrist-mounted crossbow that fires knockout darts, and the medical staff in Area 51 have anesthetic guns that cause an InterfaceScrew on Joanna, but she can use them to knock out enemies...or deliver a higher dose at point-blank range to lethally-inject them.
* Ada Wong is knocked out by one in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' fired from a very archaic-looking air rifle. [[InstantSedation It takes her less than half a second from looking at the dart that hit her for her eyes to roll up into her head]].
* In the ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' quest "A Clockwork Syringe", if you're spotted during a StealthBasedMission, a dart will be thrown at you, the screen will turn black, and you'll wake up unharmed in [[CardboardPrison an unguarded jail cell which can be easily escaped]].
* ''VideoGame/SecondSight'' has people staggering around for a few moments after being hit with tranquillizer darts,then reacting like they have been punched in the chest and falling over. Hitting them in the head takes them down instantly. It's worth noting that on the few occasions where you're shot with one yourself, it slowly saps your health rather than knocking you out (although the game treats knocked out enemies [[EverythingFades more or less]] [[RagdollPhysics the same]] as dead ones and [[spoiler:the cutscenes that play after you're defeated would indicate that you survive whatever takes you down]]).
* In ''VideoGame/TheSeveralJourneysOfReemus'': Chapter two, Reemus is shot from offscreen by a dart so loaded with sedative that it actually sprays a considerable amount on Liam when it hits. Liam has just enough time to identify the sedative before he, too, is shot and goes under. Later on, they have to collect a sample of it (it's a type of honey made by a particular bee, which is so potent that even a small amount contains enough sugar to induce a temporary diabetic coma) to exploit its faux-sedative properties.
* ''VideoGame/ShounenKinindenTsumuji'' has a blowgun that shoots darts causing enemies to be instantly knocked out and easy to attack.
* Played straight in the ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan'' video game when Silver Sable tries to kidnap Peter Parker by knocking him out with a couple of tranquilizer darts... for a few minutes anyway. Then his enhanced metabolism kicks in allowing him to wake up earlier than he was supposed to and resist all subsequent shots. Cue boss battle where he has to fight off both Silver Sable and her mercenaries while trying not to succumb to the effects of the tranquilizers in his system.
* [[http://uncharted.wikia.com/wiki/Tranquilizer_Dart_Gun Such a gun]] is used in ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'' for one level by Drake and Flynn.
* ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad'' has Tranq Rounds ammo, that work just like regular ammo except for the fact that any enemy downed by tranq rounds suffers a NonLethalKO.
* The Business from Fortuna in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' sells tranq rifles used for animal conservation across the game's landscape areas. These rifles shoot darts that travel in arcs and cause animals hit with them to [[InstantSedation fall unconscious in seconds]], ready to pick up by a drone. Most critters need [[OneDoseFitsAll just one tranq to pacify regardless of size]], though heavier ones like stovers may require up to three.[[/folder]]


[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Webcomic/DominicDeegan has [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2010-08-19 instant paralysis]] darts that, bizarrely wear off moments after being removed.
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', Baron Wulfenbach's revenant containment troops are equipped with stun bullets and C-gas grenades, for non-lethally subduing mind-controlled civilians. Tarvek gets shot in the back -- at point blank range -- with a stun bullet, and survives; he shows up in Castle Heterodyne.
* ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'': When [[spoiler:Liquid is possessed by Big Boss]] and he is threatening Raven, he is shot in the head with a high dosage tranq dart by Wolf, and it takes him several seconds to fall unconscious, causing Raven who was expecting InstantSedation to say "That took ''way'' too fucking long". The Cyborg Ninja is tranquillized and remains conscious long enough to flee.
-->'''Wolf:''' I can never get ze dose right vith zese super-humans.
* In ''Webcomic/TheLydianOption'', the Tha'Latta carry long rods with tasers at the end to subdue unruly prisoners.
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has a few;
** "[[SonicStunner Difference-tone stunners]]" exist, summarized [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-09-03 here]], but they're disdained as they're useless for intimidation:
--->'''Kevyn:''' It projects two parallel, unidirectional, high-amplitude ''VHF audio streams'', with slightly differing frequencies. When those streams intersect a target, a high amplitude ''difference-tone'' is generated in the body of the target. This low-frequency tone interferes with the target's ''synaptic refresh'', effectively jamming the nervous system and rendering the target instantly unconscious. ''[{{Beat}}]'' It's a ''magic sleep gun''.
** The "M3 Tater" is ''even worse'', as [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-10-06 all the hoops one has to jump through]] to make a weapon completely non-lethal make it [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-06-20 all but useless as a weapon.]]
--->'''Mako:''' You are a disgrace to every tool in the history of things with handles.
** While not traditional stun weapons, "goobers" are common incapacitation weapons. Instead of bothering with rays and difference tones, they just shoot high-tech goop at people that sticks them to walls. The goop makes use of nanomachines so that it will migrate off faces to make sure the victim doesn't suffocate. Goober guns are great against civilians, but shields easily block them and PoweredArmor is usually strong enough to break free.
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'':
** Riff subdues a [[DemonicPossession demon-possessed]] Gwynn by using [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=000528 the stun setting on his laser cannon]]. Given [[TimTaylorTechnology Riff]]'s [[MoreDakka personality]] the fact that a weapon he built has a stun setting [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=000531 surprises everyone]].
--->'''Torg:''' I'm surprised the switch didn't rust over by now!
** Later parodied in [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080503 this]] strip.
* In ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' Norman favors a [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/19990208.html cattle]] [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20051014.html prod]] that tends to act like a stun gun.
* A very common weapon in ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}''.
* The police in ''Webcomic/KiwiBlitz'' use pistols loaded with stun bullets (apparently miniature tasers) because they were tired of being sued whenever someone died resisting arrest.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Stun guns are the weapon of choice of the Temporal Rectification Division in ''Literature/ChronoHustle''. After all, when fixing the timeline, it's a lot easier to erase memories a person shouldn't have, than to program an entire lifetime of memories into a clone.
* The Irbzrkian shock gun in ''Literature/TheJenkinsverse'' is a less-lethal short range weapon designed to pacify humans. Humans being a species of insanely resilient deathworlders, it is emphatically ''not'' a less-lethal alternative when used on anybody else.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "Pulling Double Booty", Hayley goes on an animalistic rampage at the mall when [[NotGoodWithRejection Jeff breaks up with her]], forcing mall security to bring her down her with tranquilizer darts. In the next scene, Stan and Francine carry her home with nearly a dozen darts in her back.
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'': In the episode "Creature from Plague Lagoon", when Meatwad request Shake to tell him a bedtime story, Shake tells him one about a tranquilizer dart getting picked on by other darts, who then huffed and puffed... just as Shake blows an actual tranquilizer onto Meatwad. Shake immediately gets hit with one just as Frylock walks into the room.
* The world of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has shirshu spit darts (they induce paralysis but not unconsciousness) made from the paralyzing toxins in a shirshu's tongue. They're used on Appa in the first series when he's kidnapped and sold to the circus and on the titular heroine of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' when the Red Lotus abducts her from her bed.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In the episode "Heart of Steel", Alfred thinks he must have dozed off after being shocked with a taser.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': "Operation: Z.O.O." begins with Mrs. Goodwall (a parody of Jane Goodall) knocking out the KND with tranq darts to put them in a "Kids Zoo".
* In the '90s Marvel cartoons (''WesternAnimation/XMen'', ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''...) and various other action shows, [[FamilyFriendlyFirearms energy weapons]] on low settings are treated this way.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' episode "The Robot Spy", the title device had two antennae that could render anyone they touched unconscious.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': After recalling all that Cosmo had done to ruin his career, [[DrillSergeantNasty Jorgen von Strangle]] goes into a fit of animalistic rage only to be quickly rendered insensate using two darts humorously marked "K" and "O".
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** In "The Thin White Line", Peter's boss devises a contest for the company picnic, which involves taking shots at the employees with a tranq rifle and seeing who can last the longest. Most of the employees drop like stones the moment they get shot... except for Peter, who ends up with more than a ''dozen'' tranquillizer needles stuck in him, and still manages to stay conscious long enough to win the contest. It would seem that this is either due to his relatively high body mass, which (in theory) would require longer for the chemicals to spread through his body, or due to the increased amount of fatty deposits, which would help isolate the venom from his bloodstream.
** In "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas", when Stewie manages to calm down Lois after she reaches her RageBreakingPoint and goes on an anti-Christmas rampage, Peter still asks for the police to tranquilize her. Come Christmas morning, she's still loaded with what Peter claims is enough tranquillizer to bring down a bull elephant.
* ''Franchise/GIJoe'', one of the granddaddies of FamilyFriendlyFirearms, actually showed this... only twice. Once when a character was hit by a laser during a training exercise (and failed to be actually ''stunned'', merely yelping in pain), and once during a closeup of a Joe setting the power slider on a pistol ''from'' "stun" to "max." ATeamFiring seemed to be their preferred form of less-lethal attack.
* The season 3 finale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' features "ion pulse" weapons that are supposed to be this. In a bit of a deconstruction, they actually stop your heart and affected persons need immediate defibrillation ("So... 'stun' may be a bit of a misnomer"). Naturally, this doesn't stop [[{{Jerkass}} Archer]] from shooting his co-workers with them anyway.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', the [[AntiMagicalFaction Equalist]] shock glove is a Static Stun Gun in {{Power Palm|s}} form, designed to give the Equalists' [[{{Muggle}} nonbender]] forces an edge over enemies like the armored [[ExtraOreDinary metalbending police]]. It becomes the WeaponOfChoice of Asami Sato, Team Avatar's token BadassNormal.
* ''WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles'': The Shock Stick is a melee staff weapon used by the Skinnies that delivers powerful amperages of electricity. They are capable of killing Bugs or disabling a Trooper's PowerArmor. The Troopers later adopt this technology for their own use.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SkysurferStrikeForce''. Crazy Stunts' duel pistols can fire long cable at his enemies that will shock them if they touch it.
* Spectrum-issue sidearms have a stun setting in ''WesternAnimation/GerryAndersonsNewCaptainScarlet'', which is a mild {{bowdlerisation}} from [[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons the original 1960s version]]. It is ''mild'' because they also have a clearly-marked KILL setting which appears to be the default, and the on-screen body count is not noticeably lower.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', [[KidHero Ezra Bridger]] uses a MixAndMatchWeapon that's one-half stun blaster and one-half [[LaserBlade lightsaber]]. [[spoiler:Until Darth Vader [[WreckedWeapon destroys it]].]]
* Subverted in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode. A mysterious [[spoiler:robot]] in a robe tries to shoot a dart at the Professor, but misses and hits [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Bender]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', when Brooklyn is hit with one, he goes down almost instantly, but is still blinking groggily when he's dragged away -- so it may not have put him out completely at all. Goliath gets hit with one in Awakening Part III which only slows him down for awhile.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'', Donald tries to shoot tranquilizers at the Aracuan Bird during his performance, eventually using [[MoreDakka heavier firepower]] in all directions. By the time he's done, everyone in the club, including Mickey and ''Donald himself'' [[InstantSedation is shot and fast asleep]]...[[{{Irony}} except]] [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Princess Aurora]].
* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' TOS episodes:
** "The Quetong Missile Mystery". In what may be a LampshadeHanging of InstantSedation, Race Bannon makes a note of how fast anesthetic darts work on enemy guards.
** "Pirates from Below". Race and Bandit are knocked out by a tranquillizer dart rifle wielded by an enemy operative.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In the episode "Bad Hair Day" multiple darts are fired to subdue what ''seem'' to be orangutans. (Accidental victims of the boys' latest invention, actually.) However, only two people are hit. An Animal Control worker, and [[MadScientist Doofensmirtz]]. While the worker barely has enough time to say he's going to pass out, Doofenshmirtz is able to make it most of the way through a musical number he himself sings, ''then'' passes out (in 17 seconds as he predicts).
* Animal Control from ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' use assault rifles loaded with tranquilizer darts to bring down Death Bear. It works; About 2 minutes, 300 darts and one pair of arms later.
* In a ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' cartoon parodying nature shows; [[HairTriggerTemper Ren]] is accidentally shot with a tranq dart by [[TheDitz Stimpy]], and it takes a minute for him to go down. In the meantime, [[RuleOfFunny his voice slows down]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In the season 1 episode "The Call of the Simpsons", Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot and hit with a tranquilizer dart. He has enough time to say "Avenge my death, son," before falling asleep, snoring noticeably.
** Bart has just been "taken" by a monkey at a local zoo, and Homer tries to save him by putting a tranq-dart into a tube and putting it into his mouth. He then inhales, and it gets self-explanatory after that.
** In another episode Barney is shot with a ''bear'' tranquilizer dart. He actually pulls out the dart and drinks the remaining sedative before passing out averting InstantSedation.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': Star and Tom get shot with tranquilizer darts while searching for the monsters. Also averts InstantSedation, as they have time to ask each other about the darts that suddenly appeared (when the camera wasn't looking) before they pass out.
* Used in three episodes of the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' series:
** In "Wawanakwa Gone Wild!", Izzy uses them in a gun to try and bring down the animal she has to capture, a deer. Unfortunately, Heather is hiding behind a bush wearing deer antlers -- Izzy only sees the antlers and shoots her by mistake.
** In "Search and Do Not Destroy", Owen comes back to the campgrounds sticking out of a bear's mouth. Chris uses the darts to sedate the bear, but he gets Owen, too.
** In "Dial M for Merger", Duncan gets shot in the neck with a dart when the interns have to drag the remaining contestants to a cave as part of the challenge.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':
** In general, one of The Monarch's preferred weapons for him and his minions. He has [[InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality knockout darts]] for his nemesis and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness lethal darts for his minions.]] [[ContractualGenreBlindness You would think he has this backwards, but no.]]
** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the first episode; Brock takes about a dozen butterfly darts, and only goes down when hit with a truck. Of course, [[MadeOfIron it]] ''[[MadeOfIron is]]'' [[MadeOfIron Brock]].
** The pirate captain has an addiction to tranquillizer darts in the episode "The Lepidopterists."
** 24's attempt to kill Hank in the episode "Tears of the Sea Cow" are averted because he didn't know his rifle only shot tranquillizer darts.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Weapons that render a person unconscious, or incapacitate without causing permanent injury, are rare in real life. The sad fact is that the amount of force necessary to knock a person out is almost as great as the amount of force necessary to kill a person, and it's very hard to hit hard enough to do the former without hitting ''so'' hard that you also do the latter. Additionally, a certain amount of force may work to stun one person, but would not faze another, or be enough to kill yet another. And finally, even if you did manage to hit someone with the perfect amount of force to knock them out and not kill them, you would still almost by definition have given them a concussion -- which is more and more being recognized as a ''very'' serious injury.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeZqvqr3ogU You can make your own with a flyswatter]]. [[note]]However, be sure to check out the legality of stun gun possession in your region. In some regions, such as Hong Kong, possession of a stun gun requires an arms license or is otherwise illegal.[[/note]]
* Several companies are working on electrolasers, effectively taking the awkward probes and wires out of the Taser by using a high-frequency laser to ionise a path through the air for current to follow. So far, they've developed effective [[BoobyTrap area-defense]] devices, although they're still a long way from pistol or even rifle size. The development problem is, as per all beam weapons, a portable power supply. Another problem with electrolasers is that laser beams powerful enough to ionize air between them and a target are usually powerful enough to ''[[EnergyWeapon make holes in it]]''. Which kinda defeats the purpose of having them in the first place. Raw power (i.e. the number of photons) is not the issue, but frequency. Each photon must be able to kick off an electron on its own, so what's needed is a fairly modest beam in ultraviolet. This also contributes to the size problem -- there is no simple, stable lasing medium that works in that band, necessitating more complicated and bulky designs.
* There are also a few designs using concentrated jets of salt water, but they face the same issue as peeing on the third rail, lack of a coherent stream.
* Riot level pepper-spray guns (also used to ward off bears) count as something between StunGuns or chemical [[AgonyBeam Agony Beams]], with better takedown statistics but shorter range than handguns. Sadly, their extracurricular use in back-room [[PoliceBrutality police interrogation]] is on the increase.
* Another tool used by riot control police is the "riot ball". This is a big rubber bullet designed to be fired from a shotgun. It will cause a big bruise, and maybe crack a rib, but its intent is to incapacitate its target, not kill it. Fortunately, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial riot control policemen would never think]] of [[PoliceBrutality shooting anyone]] in [[BoomHeadshot the face]], and risk destroying an eye or nose...
* Certain countries with restrictive gun control laws, such as Russia, encourage the production of "traumatic" weapons, that is, stun firearms that can only fire rubber bullets. Most of them are either notoriously ineffective or needlessly lethal, with civilian versions likely to be the former and police versions the latter.
* The ''Series/MythBusters'' once took on the notion of a water-based stun gun, with some success. However, they determined that the device they created was, in fact, more likely to kill anyone you shot with it than to stun them. Also, the only way they could make it work at all was to fire it from inside a giant specialized lightning generator, and they only had one shot.
* The [[http://i.imgur.com/ISjUL.jpg Taser XREP]] (eXtended Range Electronic Projectile) is perhaps the closest there is to a effective multi shot stun gun. It's essentially a miniaturized taser that fits a 12 gauge shotgun. It deploys on contact so its effective range is about 100 feet, more than double to the current stun guns used by police officers. The only real problem with it is that currently it's quite pricey at around $100 a round (if you buy a pack), luckily the shells are reusable.
* And if you liked that, you're gonna love the [[http://www.taser.com/products/law/Pages/ShockwaveLE.aspx Taser Shockwave]]. Call it what they will, we call it a Taser Claymore. (No, not [[Manga/{{Claymore}} that kind]], although that would also be awesome. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M18_Claymore_anti-personnel_mine This kind.]])
* Taser shotguns caused controversy recently when they were used by British police on fugitive gunman Raoul Moat, who then [[AteHisGun killed himself with a sawn-off shotgun]]. The controversy arose from the fact that apparently the Home Office hadn't approved their use, as they're still under testing.
* Stun guns are "pain compliance" weapons. They do not render people unconscious, require long exposure to cause local muscle disruption, and are ineffective against heavier clothing.
* The British government claims that the "plastic bullet" guns issued to the Army in Northern Ireland during The Troubles was a "non-lethal" weapon, which is why deaths caused by the projectiles were always judged "misadventure" by the courts; for a more accurate description of deaths and injuries caused by rubber and plastic bullets (and CS riot-gas) see the Information on Ireland booklet "They Shoot Children!"
[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:339:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sg500s_stun_gun.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:339:"Need a jolt?"]]

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' "Knocking" Guns fire needles to nonlethally bring down opponents. The catch is that the wielder needs to know the right nerves and pressure points to strike. "Knocking Master" Jirou and his grandson Teppei can perform Knocking with their bare hands.

'''Note:''' Despite being called "guns", stun guns are not actual firearms (in the sense of shooting ballistic projectiles) nor even "guns" in the EnergyWeapon sense, instead requiring direct contact to be effective. TASER devices are closer to conventional firearms, in that they fire barbed projectiles connected to wires which deliver a shock at range.

* This is LostTechnology in ''Literature/EternityRoad''. A BenevolentAI gives the expedition some stun guns [[RagnarokProofing kept in a security guard weapons cabinet]], but once they're run out of power they're ineffective. Before that happens they use them against some river pirates, but this backfires as the pirates don't understand what's happening, instead concentrating all their fire on the one person who picked up a recognizable firearm in the confusion.
* ''Literature/FunJungle'': The park security force uses them. In ''Panda-monium'' guard Kevin Wilks tris to stop a fleeing criminal with his stun gun but trips over a little kid as he's about to shoot and accidentally tasers an old lady instead (although the crook then trips over her and knocks himself out).

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In the episode "Hostage Situation", Jake knocks Charles out by shocking him in the back with a stun gun.

* In an early episode of ''Series/BurnNotice'', Fiona zaps a Russian Mobster with a stun gun. However, since the mobster is currently grappling with her, the zap renders both of them unconscious. Note that in real life, stun guns neither cause unconsciousness, nor pass their current by physical contact with another person.

* ''Film/TheOtherGuys'': When Hoitz and Gamble are shocked with the stun guns they both pass out.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: High-Tech'' has stun guns/batons as well as tasers — which are nearly useless against people wearing anything but normal clothing. By ''Ultra-Tech'' they've been replaced with [[LightningGun electrolasers]]. Incidentally, the latter cause stunning effects only in the early editions of the game, but in 4th edition, the laser element causes a modicum of burning damage.

* ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' has the air taser, an electroshock weapon that is notable for three major attributes--firstly, it has infinite ammo, which is quite handy in an FPS. Secondly, it has infinite range--if you can see it, you can shoot it with the air taser. Finally, while stunning opponents via electric shock, holding down the trigger too long results in the victim ''bursting into flames'' while screaming loudly and spasming wildly. Fans widely consider this 'side effect' to be gruesomely hilarious. Conversely, the hand taser available in the sequel is a standard contact-type stun weapon similar to a real-life stun gun. It doesn't have the same range, utility, or entertainment value as the air taser, and is therefore uninteresting to expound upon.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In the episode "Heart of Steel", Alfred thinks he must have dozed off after being shocked with a stun gun.

* The [[http://i.imgur.com/ISjUL.jpg Taser XREP]] (eXtended Range Electronic Projectile) is perhaps the closest there is to a effective multi shot stun gun. Its essentially a miniaturized taser that fits a 12 gauge shotgun. It deploys on contact so its effective range is about 100 feet, more than double to the current stun guns used by police officers. The only real problem with it is that currently it's quite pricey at around $100 a round (if you buy a pack), luckily the shells are reusable.

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' "Knocking" Guns fire needles to nonlethally bring down opponents. The catch is that the wielder needs to know the right nerves and pressure points to strike. "Knocking Master" Jirou and his grandson Teppei can perform Knocking with their bare hands.

* Several uses in ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka''.

!!!'''Creators:'''
* Many of the Gerry Anderson live-action puppet shows featured non-lethal weaponry, including:
** The old and now almost unknown series ''Series/FireballXL5'' gave the heroes a Coma Ray Gun, a non-lethal weapon capable of making most lifeforms fall into a deep, coma-like sleep for whatever period of time the plot required.
** ''Thunderbirds'': The Tracy boys had guns with interchangeable ammunition represented by different coloured gun barrels. They could fire normal bullets (red), gas pellets (blue) or tranquillising darts (yellow).
!!!'''Series:'''
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': Early on, Fitz develops an InstantSedation-causing but entirely nonlethal neurotoxin that can be packed into hollow bullets and fired from guns that greatly resemble normal firearms, initially rifles but later pistols. After the technology is perfected the agents use it in place of lethal guns almost exclusively. (How they continue to manufacture and stock this unusual ammunition despite their other resource problems goes unexplained.) The first rifle is initially named, to much ridicule, the "Night-Night Gun", but later they come up with the much cooler acronym I.C.E.R.s.
* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' uses "tranq guns" a lot (see InstantSedation).
* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski explicitly forbade these from ''Series/BabylonFive'': "Stun settings are for people who can't commit." If you're fighting someone, either hit him or JustShootHim - if you're not, ''talk to him''.
** It's implied that a low-level PPG blast won't kill but will result in some nasty burns.
** Generally speaking, if Babylon 5's security personnel needed to take someone alive, they used old-fashioned batons or grappled them directly. The Minbari did have one or two high-tech methods of rendering someone unconscious, but even they typically would just club someone with a fighting staff.
* 1960s ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' episode "That Darn Catwoman". Catwoman's goons use electric cattle prods to stun Batman into unconsciousness.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. A flash-bang grenade is used to knock out Tigh and Adama during TheMutiny; this of course is a weapon developed for anti-terrorist use in RealLife.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.
** In "Project Avalon", Blake is shot during the dramatic rescue of a RebelLeader from a detention center. His injuries are only minor however, so he has Avon examine a captured weapon. [[spoiler:The rebel leader is actually an [[TrojanPrisoner android impersonator]].]]
--->'''Avon:''' It's not standard issue. Low energy bolt discharge. This could bruise or stun, but it couldn't cause any serious injury.
** In "Volcano", the Pyroans use a pistol that fires a narcotic spray into the air above their target, drifting down as a mist and [[KnockoutGas rendering them unconscious]]. However when fired directly at a person, the [[DeadlyGas concentrated dosage kills them]].
** The BloodlessCarnage in the final episode (except for one actor who insisted he be KilledOffForReal) was so the producers could bring the characters back to life if the series was renewed another season, by saying that stun guns had been used.

* The weapons used by The Initiative in Season 4 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.

* Wrestling/KurtAngle got his revenge for being thrown off a balcony by Wrestling/BigShow by shooting Show with a tranquilizer dart.[[/folder]]

* Taser units in ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' can stun you with their tasers, causing you to fire you gun uncontrollably. Unless another player kills the Taser or you happen to shoot him with your uncontrolled firing, you'll get incapacitated. [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 The sequel]] keeps them the same but the game also adds a stun gun as a melee weapon that can stun any enemy except the Bulldozer.

[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/FindTheCure'' the infirmary is guarded by a electrical turret that incapacitates without killing.

[[/folder]]

** One of the provisions of Dunkelzhun's will is a large sum of cash for the developer of an effective, safe, stun weapon. 15 in game years later, there is still mention from time to time of companies trying to win that prize.

* ''Film/AntMan'': Detective Paxton tases Scott, knocking him out so he can be put in the police car and taken back to jail.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': At one point (probably not any more) the Punisher carried "mercy bullets" for use on interfering superheroes and bystanders. Spider-Man was once shot at point blank range with one; considering that even a blank can kill under circumstances like that...

** Leland Owlsley has a stun gun that he drags out of storage once the man in the mask starts causing problems for Hell's Kitchen organized crime. He uses it to great effect on Matt Murdock when Matt is distracted by Stick's sudden appearance. In the season 1 finale, Leland tries to use it on Wilson Fisk, [[NoSell who shrugs it off]] and kills him by throwing him down a elevator shaft.

* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' has the Electo-Muscular Disruptors (usually shortened to [=EMDs=]), mean to help the cast non-lethally take down creatures. Though they're about the size of a normal submachine gun, Matt claims that they can take down a fully grown ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'', much to Becker's skepticism. [[spoiler:Matt finally gets to put this to the test in the fifth episode of Series 5, and the EMD does ''not'' dissapoint. In a CallBack to when the EMD was first introduced, Becker admits he was wrong]].

*** It's less useful on higher difficultly settings, as the effect wouldn't last all that long. It's more useful for gaining [[GottaCatchEmAll dogtags]], however - a tranquilized guard's tags can be stolen once he wakes up, a dead one's are off-limits until you go far away enough from the room he's in that he respawns.

** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Metal Gear Solid V]]'' gives us the Wu Silent pistol, which is the silenced tranquiliser pistol that's been a staple of the series since ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and the Urugan-5, which fills the role the Rubber Slug Shotgun did in ''Peace Walker'', except as [[RevolversAreJustBetter a 5-shot revolver]]. It's also possible do develop rifles that fire rubber bullets.

* ''Videogame/{{Fallout 3}}'' features the [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mesmetron Mesmetron]], an experimental weapon that has a 50% chance of stuning someone, a 30% of making them very angry and a 20% chance of making ''their head explode.''

* In ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'', SIG MCX's special attack has her pull out a Taser and shoot it at the nearest enemy, inflicing extra damage and debuffs.