(FORTUNE Magazine) – Should you pack a stun gun? Sam Ciammitti, CEO of Guardian Personal Security Products in Phoenix, will be happy to sell you one of his Novas, which retail for about $60. Stun guns are hand-held lightning bolts that let the user send a mega-electric charge through an attacker by touching him with the device's terminals and firing. The jolt generally floors the recipient; he feels in two seconds as if he has been working out for two hours. Believe it or not, stun guns are powered by an ordinary nine-volt battery. For you Popular Science types, the guns send out a current low in amperage -- three one-thousandths or three milliamps -- but up to 200,000 volts. Your home wiring runs about 15 amps and 120 volts. A static shock from your carpet delivers about 20,000 volts but next to no amps. So how's business, Sam? ''Pretty good. I'm moving about 5,000 pieces a month, and the market's growing 10% to 15%. Lots of cheap product coming in from Asia, though.'' Guardian, which also sells defensive sprays, has annual sales of $5 million. Stun guns are illegal in six states and in some localities. But the real drawback is that to fire a stun gun, you have to reach out and touch your assailant, which is not exactly a healthy connection.