So the assailant has the power to dictate your behavior and you think that’s okay?
Because I’m not okay with that. If someone pulls a weapon on me (yes, pepper spray is a weapon) I will respond to it. I’m a free man in a free country, in a place I have every legal right to be in. Every state in the union gives me the right to defend myself.
I’m so sick of hearing how “clutching it to your chest” or whatever is not a threat. By law, the weapon cannot leave the holster unless you are justified in using it. Pepper spray is a weapon. Yes, you are legally allowed to possess it. No, you may not take it out of the holster unless you are legally justified in using it.
If anything, I would say the woman has made her situation even more perilous. I was not considering harming her, but now that she has drawn her weapon she has not only provoked me but legally given me the option of defending myself from her aggression. If deterring an attack was her intended goal, she has accomplished the exact opposite.
I do not give a damn about the assailant’s mental state, or what the assailant has suffered in their life, or what their perceptions of me are. The only thing that matters, both from my perspective and in the eyes of the law, is that I had a legal right to be where I was and the assailant drew their weapon for no reason.
ONCE AGAIN, we see the discussion dominated by people who have no idea about use-of-force laws.
The only part of this thread that is worth discussing is that a significant portion of us believe women deserve to be treated differently in the eyes of the law.