Nervous bosses to use Tasers for protection after UnitedHealthcare assassination

Telegraph

05-03-2025

The company that makes Tasers is poised to roll out a 'covert' weapon to satisfy a surge in demand from nervous chief executives after the head of America's biggest health insurer was shot dead in New York.
Axon has told investors that fear among corporate bosses in the wake of the assassination presented a huge growth opportunity for the company.
Brian Thompson, who led UnitedHealth Group's insurance arm, was gunned down outside the entrance to the New York Hilton Midtown in December last year.
Josh Isner, the president of Axon Enterprise, said it had received a flurry of inquiries from private firms since Thompson's killing, resulting in Axon developing a 'more covert' device adapted for 'an executive security-type scenario'.
He told Semafor: 'Over the next year, you might start to hear more about certain chief executives being protected by Taser.'
Axon is best known for supplying the Taser, a weapon that fires barbs attached to wires which deliver an incapacitating electric shock, to law enforcement officials.
In the aftermath of the attack on the 50-year-old father of two, police officers were seen patrolling outside executives' homes with some even hiring private security.
The ramping up of security has been accompanied by greater concerns over privacy, with photos and bios of some executives being removed while public meetings have been held virtually for security reasons.
Axon also owns the counter-drone defence technology company Dedrone, which it bought in October last year. The manufacturer lists airports, correctional facilities, critical infrastructure, military and VIPs as its clients.
The firm has supplied Swiss Police with a security program for the Global Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and offers 'smart airspace security for VIPs' such as the royal family of Qatar.
'Think about how easy it is to equip a drone with something bad and fly it into something,' Mr Isner said.
Axon announced last week that annual revenues had doubled over the past two years to $2.1bn (£1.7bn) amid booming demand from retailers for body cameras and in-store security cameras to combat rising shoplifting.
Mr Isner said Axon had signed an 'eight-figure deal' with Loblaws, Canada's largest supermarket chain, last year. In an earnings call last week, he also announced the company had secured the largest contract in its history with an unnamed logistics company.