A company that sells iPhone cases that double as low-powered stun guns has selected Detroit as a target market, disregarding the fact that such a device appears to be illegal in Michigan.

Detroit News’s Neal Rubin reports that the $99 case, which only puts out about 14% of the voltage you’d get from a $79 stun gun, is being marketed in the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint.

“We noticed there was a rise in crime,” the company’s publicist says about these cities. “We wanted to let them know there was a solution to provide locals with personal protection.”

Which would be all well and good, if it were legal for the average consumer to buy a stun gun in Michigan. Rubin explains that only people with concealed carry permits and special training can carry electro-muscular disruption devices, and that these must be purchased a dealer in Michigan (the iPhone case maker is located in Louisiana). Also, only devices like Tasers are allowed in Michigan, as they shoot out barcoded dots of paper that allow authorities to identify the particular Taser used to take someone down.

“In short, our reputation is so bleak that a start-up self-defense company is focusing on us,” writes Rubin, “even though we can’t own its product.”

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