Long story short, a few days ago I was attacked while cycling. It's the second time an incident like this has happened. First time was an attempted mugging at night on an empty street; second time was a road rage incident in broad daylight, on a very busy street in the same neighbourhood, with people around. Needless to say, I'll avoid that neighbourhood and its shitty people from now on.
After the first mugging, I thought about self-defense and bought a mid-range flashlight, a personal alarm, and one of those criminal identifier sprays.
I thought of a "tiered" response system. T1: If I feel uneasy in any place/with anyone, I take out my flashlight and shine it, speaking loudly and making noise. T2: If I feel threatened, I trigger the alarm and turn on my flashlight's strobe or turbo mode. T3: If I'm actually in danger, I'll whip out the spray and yell for help. I only used the latter on the latest incident, and it seemed like a big enough deterrent, though it didn't immediately end the incident.
I've considered upgrading my spray to actual pepper spray (still with a red dye), buying a tactical pen, small telescopic baton and a knife, all in the ~50€ range Firearms are out of the question. I'd essentially expand my response tier: T1: flashlight; T2: alarm; T3: (long range, low threat) pepper spray; T4 (short range, medium threat): baton; T5 (close encounter, high threat): knife.
But I have a few worries:
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is it legal? Where I live, most weapons (including knives, batons, tasers, firearms) are illegal to carry, a tactical pen is considered an improvised weapon (so not illegal per se), and pepper spray is fine. Given how useless bystanders and police have been in both instances, I'm more than willing to have some items confiscated if it comes to that than ever be caught off-guard again).
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is it lethal? I don't want to seriously injure or kill anyone, even if they come at me with that intent. My goal is to have a weapon that deters attackers, maybe gives me time to take pictures of the place and attacker after I use it, call the police or run away.
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can it be used against me? I'd hate to carry something to defend myself that could be turned against me. I think something small that fits into the palm of my hand would be hard to pry away from me.
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do I need training? This spray was easy enough to use, even though I'd never done it before. Anything more complicated than that will surely be a drag; and any training can go right out the window with enough panic and confusion.
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is more too much? If I add too many items to my EDC, I run the risk of fumbling around, not being sure about what I need.
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can I keep it in a pocket, bumbag, or fannypack? The spray was in my fannypack, and it barely took me more than two seconds to whip it out, aim, and spray. Anything larger or needing any setup would be so much less effective.
Having put my thoughts into words, it seems that replacing my spray with actual pepper spray is a no-brainer. As for the rest, I'm not too sure. A tactical pen is legal, not necessarily lethal, small in size, and may not require training. It's not much of a deterrent, though. A knife is illegal, can be used against me, could easily be lethal, but is a good deterrent despite its size. Batons are illegal, can be used against me, require training, can be lethal, but on the other hand: some models are small enough, the deterrent factor is greater, and with a bit of force can do some major damage.
I've also thought of carrying an empty decoy wallet. If anyone asks for my stuff, I'll just throw that and run in the opposite direction.
Thanks for the read, and let me know what you think.
Submitted January 14, 2018 at 08:32PM by Formadivix http://ift.tt/2Ddx1FD
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