Security Products:
Personal Safety Devices
& Weapons

Security Products CANNOT be guaranteed to prevent crimes - but will likely serve you well if used with the safety tips in Home Security and Outdoor Safety Overview.

Maria Esperanza Hernandez usually got a ride to work, but this one time she had to walk. At a quiet crossroads, a man wielding a tree branch clubbed to death Hernandez and a teenage daughter who didn't want mom to walk alone at night. It's not just that it happened, but also where. Fremont is among the safest mid-sized cities in the nation. ... The pair started walking, then called a cousin by cell phone to ask for a ride. When the cousin got near Fremont, she called to find out where they were, but heard only screams and footfalls before the call went dead, police said.
Excerpted from The Marin Independent Journal (CA) – 06 February 2004

Personal Safety Devices:
ALARMS, SPRAYS, & WEAPONS

Modern technology provides a variety of security products for home, travel, and children. You’re likely to find solutions to security lapses you didn’t even realize you had.

Andrea always walks into a parking lot prepared for action. She holds her key-chain with pepper spray and a noisemaker alarm raised and ready, in full view – as a deterrent for predators looking for easy prey. (See Kidnapping for dealing with a predator with a gun.) In her car, with her keys now in the ignition, she has another unit of pepper spray as a back-up within easy reach in her console.

Pepper spray (Oleoresin Capsicum – OC) takes 3-60 seconds to fully affect one's mucous membranes, though usually quickly. It causes choking and tearing for 30-45 minutes - and will probably allow your escape.

Pepper sprays may be disguised as anything from ballpoint pens and pagers to jogger’s hand-weights, and come in various spray patterns:
Mist (a.k.a. forced cone): good, but even a mild breeze can cause blowback and contaminate you.
Fog: good against multiple attackers but a strong wind can cause blowback on you.
Foam: even strong winds cause very little blowback on you.
Stream (a.k.a. broken stream): This is probably the best all-around choice. It's good against multiple attackers and not affected by breezes and winds as much as mist and fog sprays are.

Strengths range from 2-17 percent OC formula. More important to potency are the Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) – the higher the better – up to 2 million units.

Walk through parking lots holding www.GuardDog.net/Pepper Spray raised and ready, in full view of any predator looking for easy prey. (See Survival-Options-Kidnapping for dealing with a predator with a gun.) Also have a www.guarddog.net/PersonalAlarm ready to deter a predator. Keep a back-up foam pepper spray in easy reach in your car. Keep stream pepper spray at home near your bed.

Try to keep some distance away from your attacker (to avoid getting the spray on you). Aim at his eyes with a short burst then move away. Watch him to see if you need to spray him again. After he’s been incapacitated, run to a populated area and call police.

Dog Attack - pepper spray (see above) provides safe, effective, and humane protection against canine attack. Ideal protecton for walkers, joggers, cyclists or delivery people.

Bear Pepper Spray from www.GuardDog.net helps protect outdoor enthusiasts.

Theresa uses electronics to help protect her children. She pins a wireless transmitter to her toddler to monitor his whereabouts around the house. Her older kids have developed the simple habit of wearing personal noisemaker alarms on their belts while they’re outdoors.

Child Alarms at www.guarddog.net alert you if your child wanders away beyond 30 feet. A variety of models are available. I highly recommend these if used with the utmost parental discretion.

Alarms (a.k.a. noisemakers or screamers). The best alarms continue shrieking until deactivated by reinserting a pin in a hole. An attacker won’t likely chase a noisy target. See www.guarddog.net.

Hotel/Motel Doorstop Alarms at www.Amazon.com – Doorstop Alarm (a wedge under the door) won't stop a Push-In or a kick-in. But when traveling (or in a school dormitory), this will at least slow unwanted entry, alert you, and likely scare off an intruder.

Stash Safes (a.k.a. diversion safes) hide your valuables in ordinary containers at home or away.

Stash Clothing hides your valuables in hidden belts, socks, or pockets. See www.magellans.com. Give a mugger a dummy wallet stuffed with small bills, then run to safety. See Give Up Your Money – Quickly Yet Carefully in Outdoor-Safety-Facing-Danger

Whistles stop sounding when you stop blowing. Better are the noisemaker alarms (above) that keep sounding while you maneuver for escape. But if you do rely on a whistle, instead of hanging it around your neck on a cord that can be used to strangle you, use a beaded-metal chain that breaks too easily for strangling. Or wear a whistle on a wrist bracelet.

Stun guns or batons produce a menacing electrical arcing that might scare off an attacker, but otherwise have drawbacks as security products. You must be very close to your attacker while holding the device on his bare skin before it stuns (clothing hampers it further). Also, you can use it on only one attacker; what if there's more than one?

Tasers (basically, stun guns with wired darts that fly toward the attacker) are also problematic as security products: it’s hard to hit a moving target. Again, you can use it on only one attacker; what if there's more than one?

Stun Lights briefly impair an attacker’s vision (similar to a camera's flash bulb) but are bulky and less effective in daylight as security products.

Skunk sprays are foul-smelling chemicals (worse than a skunk) that nauseate both the attacker and victim. It makes no sense to deter your escape. Pepper sprays are better security products.

Dye spray indelibly marks a criminal to help catch him afterwards. Big deal! Pepper spray stops him beforehand.

Kubotans are 4-inch ribbed rods with a hole in one end for your key ring. One end can project from your fist like an ice pick, and the other end can whip your keys into the eyes of an attacker. Be careful, they may be classified as "brass knuckles" – illegal in many states.

The women were hiking back to the hostel when the man began following them. He appeared drunk and became increasingly aggressive towards them after they rejected his advances, police said. One of the women produced a penknife in an attempt to scare the man off but he grabbed it and used the knife to force himself on the two women, raping them one after the other.
Excerpted from The Independent (Hong Kong) – 15 June 2004

Knives are effective if in hand and if you’re truly willing to use one in self-defense. If, instead, you try merely bluffing with it, you may end up having the knife taken away from you.

Guns are the most effective security products – if in hand and if you’re truly willing to kill and not merely try to bluff. Get proper training from certified experts, practice regularly, and obey all laws.

The fierce political controversy of gun control laws is profoundly complex. The fundamental dilemma at the heart of the matter is that a gun may be a savior for defending yourself or a destroyer if you’re emotionally out of control – or if it falls into the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, or untrained and irresponsible children.

Better than anyone else, you know the tendencies of you and your family toward accidents, depression, and anger – or mature responsibility (after thoroughly training all family members and obeying all laws). It’s up to you to trust yourself and your family with a gun, or to take your chances on remaining unarmed in a violent world.

Either choice has valid pros and cons. But keep quiet about whichever choice you make. Gun owners shouldn't broadcast strategic information, and unarmed people shouldn’t broadcast their vulnerability. If you choose to remain unarmed, you might still remain safe by carefully observing the safety procedures and unarmed fighting techniques taught throughout Crime-Safety-Security.com.

If you are considering buying a gun, find sensible guidance in Armed & Female by Paxton Quigley at www.PaxtonQuigley.com.

Personal Safety Devices SUMMARY

Enhancing Your Options
Carrying Pepper Spray & a Noisemaker, at Security-Products-Personal-Devices, visibly ready will greatly enhance your first option – posturing as a tough target (see Victims-Options-Posturing) – and probably deter a predator immediately. Your fifth option – Fighting – is enhanced as well.

For convenience, learn self-defense ONLINE:

KRAV MAGA, a practical self-defense system used by many police forces worldwide, teaches you to defend yourself, enhances your survival instinct, and can be applied under extreme stress. It's not flashy, just very effective. I highly recommend it. The Krav Maga TV - Online Training videos are especially convenient to learn at home when your schedule allows or if you don't live near a training center.

Home Security Hardware, Burglar Alarm Equipment, and Personal Safety Devices

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