Everyone wants to feel secure whether at home, in your car, or just out going about your business. Unfortunately there may come a time when you need to have some means of self-defense, some way to protect yourself, your home or your family. If you’ve spent any time checking out different types of self defense weapons and training you’ve no doubt seen stores and web sites offering everything from pistols and shotguns to pepper sprays and courses in martial arts. If none of these standard methods appeals to you though, here a few other suggestions (some serious, some not so serious):
- Instead of pepper spray, use a can of wasp and hornet spray. It’s easily available and has an effective range of up to 20 feet, compared to six to eight feet for most pepper spray products.
- Gloves with steel shot sewn into the knuckles. They look harmless but work like a blackjack and are available from a couple of different vendors via the internet. You can also find baseball caps that are similar, with steel shot sewn into the cap itself — not sure how comfortable that would be to wear though.
- A can of WD-40 and a butane lighter make a nice miniature flame thrower. Collateral damage could be a problem however.
- The sharpened edge of one of your credit cards can make a fairly efficient (and innocent-looking) weapon for slashing someone at close range.
- How about a wrist-braced slingshot and a bag of golf balls or ball bearings. It takes a good deal of practice to become proficient but it can do some serious damage if you use a good quality slingshot and can actually hit your target.
- A hockey stick has a number of advantages in terms of self-defense. It makes a very good weapon for slashing at something or someone and it doesn’t look particularly out of place if you’re carrying one around outside.
- For home defense, a large dog or two is an excellent choice. And if you don’t have or don’t want to have a large dog, a continuous loop tape or cd of dogs barking can work too.
- Kevlar gloves can provide some protection against a knife attack.
- Some experts recommend biting – not a normal bite, but something more on the order of a pit bull type bite, preferably on an ear or finger.
- One of the “unbreakable” umbrellas for sale on the internet offers a way to keep an attacker at a distance; and if you’ve ever seen commuters jockeying for position in the London Underground, you can appreciate the use of the umbrella as an offensive weapon.
- If you want a firearm for self-defense, you might take a look at the Palm Pistol. It’s a single-shot.38 caliber pistol that fits in the palm of your hand. It’s specially designed for seniors or the disabled who have limited physical dexterity and is fired with the thumb instead of your index finger. And it’s been classified as a “medical device” by the FDA.
- If you’re really intent on avoiding any confrontation, you can try leaving some money or valuables on a table near your door or window and hope that anyone breaking in will simply “take the money and run.”
Hopefully these suggestions will provide you with some new options for self-defense. And if you’re really into home defense you might take a tip from an Army ranger I heard about. He rigged his porchlight so that if you flipped the light switch up the porch light came on; if you flipped the switch down it set off a small explosive charge — more than enough to discourage someone intent on breaking the front door down. In any case take some time to think about self-defense — you never know when the moment may come when you’ll need to have some way to protect yourself.