John Higson Cover Jr. (April 6, 1920 – February 7, 2009) was an American aerospace scientist who was the inventor of the taser stun gun.

[2] Cover earned a bachelor's degree and a doctorate in nuclear physics at the same university,[1] studying under Enrico Fermi.

He was a scientist at North American Aviation from 1952 until 1964 and also worked for NASA[3] (Apollo program), IBM and Hughes Aircraft.

Because the Taser used gunpowder to launch the darts, the federal government considered it a firearm, a classification that ruled out a civilian market and also discouraged police and military sales.

[2] He had Alzheimer's disease, and died of pneumonia on February 7, 2009, at the Golden West Retirement Home in Mission Viejo, California.