this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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For the humble consideration of the group: pepper spray is really effective at what it does and taking away someone's vision is one of the greatest advantages you can take in a fight. I also agree that guns aren't the exodia for a fight that one might believe. I put stock into knives as a deterrent, but not as much as declaring you have pepper spray and brandishing it.
With that being said, in terms of being a deterrent, I also think a flashlight/tazer combo is a potent deterrent, perhaps superior to pepper spray. In that pepper spray let's someone fuck around and find out because it can look unassuming, if you get a light shined in your eyes and then hear the loud sound of a tazer, I have to believe that you lose the will to fight far faster. The light takes away their vision while giving you more which is super overpowered.
A YouTuber who was an ex cop, martial arts instructor with experience and training in use-of-force has spoken multiple times that "just run" isn't the golden ticket that I once thought it was and I find it persuasive. Even if there is no win condition in fighting besides getting home safely, protecting others, injuries, if they're faster than you, etc. would be part of the calculus too. Which really sucks and is depressing. Not everyone can have a decade of competitive combat sport experience. Things like walking in a group, having awareness of your surroundings, looking tough also make you look like you're not the easiest target in the room which is probably what a random aggressor is looking for.
I'm not a fan of the little electrical clicker stun guns. Actual, honest to god Tazer brand Tazers have massive voltage and some kind of circuit that pulses electricity to force your muscles to seize up. Stun guns, as far as I know, don't have any equivalent. If you've ever been hit with one (When I got one some friends and I took turns hitting ourselves in the leg with it) it hurts a lot and it';s surprising, but it's not instantly incapacitating the way a tazer is. You also need to be literally in hand-to-hang combat with your enemy to use it, and it relies on getting in contact with or very close to the skin, and staying there. thick clothing will block it, hitting someone at the wrong angle so the contacts don't get close enough to the skin will stop it from working. Add to that, you're basically throwing a punch, and then keeping your fist with the stunner in contact with them until, hopefully, they fall down.
With pepper spray you can be as much as 10 feet away, you can keep spraying until they stop, and most importantly you never have to get close enough for them to grab or hit you.
Re: Will to fight - If you feel at all threatened hose them down and walk away. It'll wear off in a few hours. You don't have to worry about their will to fight or anything else - If you get them in the face they won't be able to see and will have trouble breathing.
Of the available options pepper spray doesn't require you to come within arms reach, it's instantly or nearly instantly incapacitating, it's very forgiving of bad aim - You can usually spray for several continuous seconds before the cannister runs out. The demand for physical ability is very low compared to most other options. It's not as overtly threatening as other options, but you can also use it with a much lower threshold of confidence that you're in danger as it'll wear off without causing permanent harm in a few hours.