Personal assaults happen every 10 seconds in the United States, but personal security devices give victims a fighting chance.  Personal security aids like tasers and pepper spray are now affordable, available, and effective.

Deciding to use one of these personal protection devices is a big step.  Knowing the advantages and uses for pepper spray and tasers is important in order to decide which device best suits your needs.

Pepper Spray

Pepper spray is derived from the oily substances produced by cayenne and other peppers.  Contact with pepper spray mist immediately produces a burning, stinging sensation of the skin, eyes, nose, throat, and sinuses.  Pepper spray causes the temporary blindness, disorientation, and fear of your assailant, buying you time to escape.

The main advantage of pepper spray is the buffer zone it creates between victims and their attackers.  Users can effectively disable aggressors from ten or more feet away.  Since pepper spray should be administered in one second bursts, be sure to buy a canister that can be used several times in case you encounter several assailants or need additional time to incapacitate your attacker.

There are, however, limitations to pepper spray.  In order to be effective, you must be able to spray the pepper spray in your attacker’s face – it won’t work from behind or on any other body part.  Also, pepper spray will not fully incapacitate an attacker.  While extreme burning of the eyes, nose, and throat lasts up to 20 seconds, an attacker still has full use of his body and limbs to harm or inflict pain on his victim.  While pepper spray proves useful for giving victims a window of opportunity to escape, it’s not completely failsafe and should be used with that in mind.

Tasers

Used successfully for years in police departments across the United States, tasers are now available for personal use in most states.  A taser is a small device that shoots two dart-like electrical probes toward an assailant in order to produce an electric shock.  Although it causes temporary immobilizing pain, the electric shock produced is non-lethal. However, be sure to check local laws to see if any permits are required to carry a taser in your state.

Like pepper spray, tasers have some drawbacks.  In addition to the strict regulations associated with tasers, they must be used within a close range for several seconds.  Although tasers effectively incapacitate predators from a distance of up to ten feet, you typically have to be significantly close to your attacker, not allowing a large personal security zone.  Costing up to several hundred dollars, commercial tasers are also much more expensive than commercial canisters of pepper spray, and require a certain amount of mental fortitude to use:  delivering an electric shock, especially over the required several seconds, appears very violent.  Additionally, tasers have been linked to hundreds of deaths in the United States, attracting the attention – and the wrath – of many human rights groups such as the United Nations and Amnesty International.  Consider all these factors carefully when choosing which personal security device is right for you.