Really, a rather important piece of information for those who carry them.
Self-defense sprays don’t work! Because only the police (in the USA) are allowed to have the good stuff. ‘The good stuff’ is subsequently classified as a weapon. And if you were to carry that with you, you’d probably get in more trouble than the criminal you sprayed it with.
Some guy back, on local TV where I live [Detroit, MI] let a woman spray him with her OTC self-defense spray. It only made him sneeze and cough a little. Now, I am not a hoodlum myself. But I would guess if you did that to a perp, in addition to NOT incapacitating him, it would also probably make him pretty angry too.
Carry a whistle with you, or a loud horn. Or this is interesting. The phrase people yell that is most likely to get attention is ‘Fire!’. So yell Fire, if you are attacked.
Also where I live, walking sticks, as long as they’re not concealed, are okay. One cop once told me that they only are classified as weapons if you get attacked. Interesting information.
Do you have evidence of this? A random, uncited news story doesn’t hold much weight. Maybe it was just a shitty brand or the guy that let her spray him has been sprayed enough times in the past that he can tolerate it a bit better (even if he doesn’t realize it).
My uncle does pepper spray training*, he regularly gets sprayed with the stuff. I can’t imagine he’d keep doing it if wasn’t getting used to it.
*I had to take a class to get my bartender’s license and for some reason they played a video about using pepper spray. My uncle was the one getting sprayed in the video.
I recently hospitalized someone with my cane. One hit and he was down. I am in the clear legally but I might be sued for damages in civil court.
My advice is to carry a wood or carbon fiber cane, something with a little weight. One of those drug store, adjustable canes will fold if stressed by wrapping it around sometimes head.
I saw my Ophthalmologist playing the bad guy in one of my self defense classes!
We had a Rottweiler mut mix that wandered into our yard in 1995. Suddenly, and totally without provocation, she attacked our other dog in 1997*. Panic-stricken and not knowing what to do, my father and I sprayed her with self-defense spray. Again, didn’t have the slightest effect.
I guess the reporter and us could both had a dud. But that would have been quite a coïncidence, don’t you think? (FWIW we do live in Michigan, which might be important. YMMV.)
*Yeah, but we showed her nothing but love. Finally we took her to an animal psychologist, who said it was breeding. So we separated the dogs, and it never happened again. Finally she died a couple of years ago, in 2012 or 2013 IIRC, of old age.
I didn’t know that. I’m surprised that would be legal for civilians (and I see you can get it right on amazon, because of course you can).
When I kept seeing OTC spray, I was assuming he meant OC spray (pepper spray). What I was curious about is if he was thinking of CN spray (The original, actual Mace), but I didn’t think that had really been around since the 90’s.
Oh, and my own personal anecdote. My brother got pepper sprayed back in the 90’s when he was probably 10 years old. I assure you he did more than make him “sneeze and cough a little.”
There is no generic “OTC self-defense” spray. There are different formulations for different purposes, governed by law in many jurisdictions.
In Canada, for example, the typical “dog repellent” and strongest spray that can legally be carried for self-defense is (I believe) a maximum of 0.5% capsaicin. I have no idea how effective this might be on a determined human attacker. However, there is also bear spray, which can be upwards of 1% capsaicin and which may also contain other ingredients. If it can discourage a bear it would surely discourage a human. But bear spray is only legal to use against bears, and if used to attack a human, potentially even in self-defense, you could face concealed-weapon charges, assault with a weapon, and potentially other criminal charges.
My suspicion is that he was using “OTC” for “over-the-counter” – that is, sprays that are generally available for purchase by consumers, and not in describing any particular formula or ingredient. Though, that acronym is more commonly used for medications that one can buy without a prescription, rather than self-defense items.
I had a OTC pepper spray that leaked a bit in my pocket, that got onto my fingers then latter rubbed my eye (one eye).
The affect was not right away, it took however seconds to go from burning to pain to loss of being able to see much as my vision turned red and white and almost impossible to open that eye with extreme tearing that seemed to somehow spread it to the other eye.
I do assume that people will be affected differently and drugs may also lessen what it does, but I got a very small dose and it would have and did work on me.
In addition a bit later, perhaps 30 minutes I noticed I had a chemical burn on my leg where contact with the liquid got onto my skin through the pocket.
Now with that said that was perhaps 30 years ago and OTC stuff today may be quite different.
I have some interest in this topic since I have commonly carried a pepper spray (key ring attachment) for potential use against menacing dogs while running, hostile joggers etc.
It turns out that it’s legal in all states to carry such sprays, with a few states having explicit restrictions on felons and/or concentrations that are higher than a certain cutoff.
It is also possible to purchase such products in concentrations equivalent to what law enforcement uses.
Whether or not they are effective in confrontational situations depends on a number of factors as the following study found:
“The results from this exploratory study indicated that in general individuals regardless of gender did not own a pepper spray and if they did, they did not receive any training on how to use pepper spray for self-defense. Additionally, individuals reported not carrying the spray on them when they went out, which defeats the purpose of purchasing this non-lethal self-defense device. A knowledge gap identified in this exploratory study was that individuals did not realize that aiming for the face (not eyes) is the best target to get the desired effects. All users were able to complete the task assigned after a brief review of the instructions, which is a good positive indication for learnability and efficiency of the product. While effectiveness was not quantitatively measured, the results indicate that participants were not confident in their ability to effectively use the pepper spray in a real-world situation.”
The other night I was watching a “Cops” rerun in which a police officer managed to spray himself as well as a suspect, so it’s possible that officers may also not be optimally trained to use them in the age of tasers.*
*which as we’ve seen, are not always deployed correctly either.
Don’t they typically add a dye that won’t wash off for awhile? You can see it under UV light IIRC so the perp can deny he was there but he’s got some splainin’ to do about why he’s marked.
And there’s the “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6” angle, potentially.
