Practical Self Protection alternatives

This article will not address hand guns as it is in my opinion that a fire arm have no place in the public domain. For one reason a person may not have time to use a hand gun and also you stand a chance of having your own gun pointed at you!

We will discuss practical measures that can be used by any adult, or even if you have kids in college, to give them an extra edge of protection. When my daughter began college in a congested city I wanted to know that she would be as safe as possible. Of the many options available there were 3 choices that were the most practical.

Number one is a whistle. These can be purchased almost anywhere and are very easy and practical to keep on your person. Of course there is no danger of injuring self with a whistle and it can be worn on a necklace around the neck. I personally liked the idea of the whistle and I purchased her one, but I didn't feel that it had enough punch really. Naturally this would only be effective in an area where people may be within 100 yards.

The next 2 choices would be a Taser Gun and or Pepper Spray. Both of these are practical choices as the expense is very cheap now days and very portable as well. There are benefits to each.

A Taser gun comes in many voltage ranges, from 20,000 volts to 1.2 million volts. With such a large range many people do know which size would be most beneficial. With my own research I've found that 100,000 volt Taser has plenty of strength to demobilize any attacker for 2 to 4 minutes. The physical size is small and only requires one 9 volt battery for operation. The higher voltage Tasers are just too powerful for a college student to have on their person.

The Taser is ideal for wearing on the wrist with provided wrist strap. It is easily activated by the push of just one button. A Taser is ideally used when there would be more of an ambush attack where a person has little time to prepare. If the Taser gun is held in the hand, secured with the wrist strap as one walks from point A to point B, you will have no problems in fending off an attacker, even with a behind the back assault.

Pepper spray is my preferred choice for a couple of reasons. Number one, if you are on your toes and make sure you can not be surprised by someone jumping out of an ally or out of a car etc. you will have an advantage over the Taser gun. That advantage being you can place 12 feet between you and the attacker as the Pepper Spray can easily shoot 10 to 12 feet. I can assure you that a person looses all interest in completing an assault while their eyes are burning and they are temporarily blind. I also prefer the Pepper Spray due to the fact that my kids could get into less trouble with that, than with a Taser Gun.

However, my daughter is very responsible and with these products being so inexpensive these days I purchased all three products for her. Don't laugh, I'm a Father after all.

Having done this, I took ample time to work with her explaining that none of these products will work if she does not take the preparation to have them with her when she needs too.

I made her promise to always wear the whistle around her neck. I also Velcro the Pepper Spray tube to the outside of her purse where she could easily have access to it if she was out and about. She could also remove this when going into class etc and put it back in her purse. With the Taser gun, I advised her to place it in her hand, with the wrist strap secure anytime she was walking at night time unescorted (which I also told her not to do) heh.

Kids will be kids, and they will not always listen of course. But if I can provide 3 different measures of self protection for Daughter in College, then the chances rise dramatically that she will always have a form of protection available.