How about carrying pepperspray as a safety measure?

[uppityperson]

This comes after watching the newly released surveillance video of the SPU shooting and how it was stopped (link to du thread below). I am tired of reading (mostly elsewhere) that people need guns to be safe. How about pepper spray or something like that? You still have the problem of random sprayings, and bystanders getting affected, but it seems safer than adding more guns.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027919233

[milestogo]

1. I don't know if that would have bothered the alligator.

[Brickbat]

2. In the end, each person is responsible for their own safety, and must make their own decisions

about what to carry, when to carry, and how well trained they will be in using it.

[msongs]

3. no guns = no people killed by guns. NRA propaganda cannot cancel that out nt

[Brickbat]

4. No guns = not going to happen.

[HereSince1628]

5. Yes, in the end, which implies after other things

We can facilitate and probably should help people be safer in the face of various risks.

In the same way that your safety in a car in the end comes down to your responsibility.

But we can help with road conditions/markings/signaling, traffic laws and their enforcement, vehicle design/operating requirements for use on public thruways, driver training, etc.

Same thing with guns. Safety against guns needn't default to depending on having a gun with which you can imagine defending yourself

[Just reading posts]

6. Better than nothing, I suppose. Not nearly as a handgun, though.

[meow2u3]

7. One big problem with pepper spray

It can blow in your face in a head wind. When you're in danger, you don't think of shifting your position to spray your assailant so the crook gets it instead of you.

Personally, I prefer stun guns. A good zap should shock the criminal and give you time to escape, but it's useless against a gun fired from a distance.

[Lee-Lee]

8. I was a pepper spray instructor

I've been sprayed over 25 times as part of that.

First, pepper spray has a limited range. It requires you to be very close, dangerously close to your attacker.

Second, it stands a very high chance of also getting on you and incapacitating you. If you are in a situation with multiple aggressors that's bad.

Third, it isn't fully incapacitating. Our departments qualifications included two tests, one done every six months so you did each one every year. First test you got sprayed direct in the face, had to count to 5 very loud, turn around, run to another cop holding a large pad and strike if with your baton 5 times, run to another person, draw your pistol, order them on the ground and successfully handcuff them.

All that after a full dose of pepper spray. Don't pass, don't get certified to carry pepper spray, don't work.

Second test was added a few years after I started and required being sprayed at the range, drawing your pistol and engaging a target at 15 feet. 70% hit rate required. Don't pass, don't work.

So pepper spray is not fully incapacitating and doesn't fully stop someone.

There are some people it just doesn't bother, and some drugs will make a person not feel the effects of it. I have seen people take a full can and still fight hard and injure officers.

It's a tool. It has many limitations, and without training is more likely to not be effective or fully effective than it is. Most people carrying it have never actually sprayed it so they don't even know how far it goes, what the spray pattern is, etc- and many don't even know how to actually spray it and take the can off the "safe" setting most have requiring it to be turned sideways. If you don't know that and haven't practiced it odds are you will fumble with it and any stacker can close the 7-12 feet range most civilian spray works at before you even figure it out.

This video shows a police academy pepper spray class and shows you all the things they are able to do after taking a much, much higher dose direct to the eyes than anyone is going to be able to deliver in a self defense situation. It is far from actually incapacitating.

https://m.

I'll keep my pistol.

[LAS14]

12. Sounds like it's better than nothing and better than arming the population with guns. nt

[Sissyk]

9. If that works for you,

I have no right to tell you yes or no.

For me, I'll still carry my gun when I think it's warranted.

[Crepuscular]

10. ...

Don't bring pepper spray to a gun fight.

[LAS14]

11. Excellent idea! nt