My daughter usually carries pepper spray and had to use it. A thug came at her at a gas station with his hand in a jacket pocket saying he had a gun and demanded her money. She reached into her purse, pulled out the pepper spray and emptied it in his face. It disabled the thug long enough for police to arrive and take him into custody. There were witnesses so she had no legal ramifications for defending herself.
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Iām so glad your daughter could defend herself, @Mark1! And that the local law enforcement was self-defense friendly.
Does she still carry pepper spray? Has she started to carry yet?
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Yup 20 inch expandable baton. My wife carrys pepper spray in addition to her pistol. I also do mma, jiu jitsu to supplement my less lethal options.
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I carry a kubotan persuader. Small unobtrusive and no-one really knows what the hell it is when they see it, Works great if you know how to use it. Used it many times in my LE career. It is a great ācontrolā tool and most often times eliminated the grappling that can occur when making an arrest.
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Lots of good reasons both pro and con.
Remember they are not āless than lethalā they are all āless lethalā than firearms.
Before buying any of them make sure you check your state laws because many of the less lethal alternatives are illegal in many states.
Where they are legal make absolutely sure under what circumstances they can be used under state law.
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Taser Pulse+ and Fox Labs foam mace with dye.
The thing about the taser is that many who are drugged up donāt feel the jolt, in this instance mace or pepper spray is a better choice.
The civilian Pulse+ Taser delivers a continuous 30 second jolt per trigger press, LE tasers only deliver 5 second rides. The purpose behind the 30 second ride is to allow you to drop it and run, Taser offers a full replacement if you have to leave it behind.
I also have Noonlight app on my phone and watch. Itās basically a panic button that immediately summons help. It also connects to the Pulse+ via Bluetooth, when the taser is deployed it will activate the app. Last month forgot to disable the connection during the monthly test, within seconds Noonlight dispatchers were texting and calling. Best $2.99 I spend per month.
Iāve used Noonlight a few times, once it saved my bacon. Gangbanger decided to attack, chased me around the car a few times, before he knew deputies were on scene. Lucky for me I saw him hanging out by my car when I exited the store. As I approached I made sure to approach in a manner that put him diagonally opposite of me, so it wasnāt really a chase, more of dancing to keep the car between me and him.
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A lot comes down to how much you can carry. MY EDC package is my Glock 26 w 12 round Magpul magazine in the weapon and a spare on my belt. Thereās a rechargeable pocket light in my rear pocket and a Benchmade Stryker in my front pocket dominant hand and cell in the opposite front pocket. I keep a 21ā ASP between the driverās seat and console, spare light and knife n driverās door pocket along with pepper spray. Spare mags, cuffs and a holster mounted in the glovebox.
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It also varies greatly based on the individualās risk factors, needs, and what it practical.
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Without a doubt! An evening out at a 5 star in that little black dress with a clutch will be much different than a trek to Walmart in the winter.
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One thing that concerns me, if you have multiple levels of lethality, is the Monday morning quarterbacking a prosecutor may do. āWhy did you shoot him? You had pepper spray AND a baton, the same sort the police use. You could have stunned him, so why did you CHOOSE to KILL him?ā
The other thing is I donāt expect, in an emergency, is to have a lot of analytical time to assess the bad guyās skill and intent, weigh my options, calculate risk, and choose,
I donāt expect, in a high speed or surprise assault scenario to have time to deploy a less lethal option, and then when it doesnāt work, deploy a more lethal one. Remembering that the less lethal ones, except maybe a flashlight, require pretty close quarters to be effective, Iāve given up time and distance by taking the less lethal choice that I donāt get back if I need to re-choose.
I generally see a knife or a baton or a contact-point stun gun as better for backup to the gun optionā¦ to be used if you canāt get to your gun because youāre grappling, or fighting to retain your gun, or youāre down or injured so you canāt shoot, or out of ammo.
Iām not going to address them all but itās really very simple.
You never use pepper spray on a potentially deadly threat unless you have lethal coverage/backup from someone else present or in your other hand ready to use because of how frequently it fails to stop an attacker.
As for the rest, āSir, I had a tenth of a second to choose which method Iād employ to stop a deadly threat and I chose the one I was sure I could count on getting the job doneā.
Legally thereās no difference in choosing a gun, knife, club, hammer or any other deadly wepon and both the police and prosecutors know it.
You shouldnāt be answering these questions except through or with specific permission from your Atty anyhow.
You can get different opinions from different attys but my advice is this.
You establish that you are the innocent party and that you acted in lawful self defense, show them all pertinent evidence you are aware of, Identify witnesses that were present etc and then politely say, "I really want to cooperate fully but I need to get myself together and talk to my attorney before saying any more.
Itās always a very good idea to immediately request a ride to the hospital for trauma counseling and to get checked out as well.
The combination of the two will immediately shut down all questioning and if it doesnāt the police will be in trouble.
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@WildRose my considerations of risk are not just for the incident itself but for the potential aftermath including the options I leave the prosecutor. I hold āshouldā to be of zero value, particularly where it refers to the prosecutor and the DA doing what they āshouldā. Been there, done that, learned the hard way.
Risk analysis is a huge part of how I make my living, life and death considerations and how to understand them, sorting actual risk from perceived risk, assessing how decisions get made. Looking at likelihood of occurence, likelihood of harm, frequency of actual harm, potential and actual severity of harm. Sorting all that out to determine what mitigations are of value, what their likelihood of success is, what their effectiveness is.
In this process, severity of consequences outweighs likelihood of occurrence until the likelihood becomes extremely small.
For me, prosecutorial misconduct is a huge potential harm. Iāve seen it up close and personal, and more than once. On the āimpossible to certainā scale, for me with my experience, it ranks in the ālikelyā zone. Thatās a risk that needs to be mitigatedā¦ and relying on a āshouldā on their part doesnāt get it done.
I also know that for myself, response in a reflex timing emergency response, having too many options slows me down. Options are good, too many options, not so much. Iām better off having fewer choicesā¦ a flashlight, a knife, a gunā¦ becoming deeply skilled with those, than scaling how I use those than adding mace, stun gun, baton to the mix and handicapping myself by adding more choices, and by decreasing the depth of training in all of them to cover more breadth of territory.
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I hear ya and to be real honest, Iām not a fan of the less lethal options for mot people in most situations and certainly not for myself.
If I canāt carry a gun, Iāll have a knife and a Kubaton/Tactical pen or some combination of both in multiples.
Weāre not cops and I donāt feel like wearing a utility belt to have a half dozen different options plus spare mags etc.
Bugās I think are unnecessary in 99.9% or more self defense situations so the only time I even consider carrying one is if Iām doing armed PP or courier work.
KISS is a very good rule of thumb and in matters of life or death I think itās essential.
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