You’ve taken a serious look at your community and priorities and have decided to buy pepper spray. What should you do next? The answer spells the difference between using pepper spray as a prop to build your self confidence and being able to apply it as am effective self defense tool. Don’t just drop it in your pocket and purse; think about how to use it effectively, practice and develop the attitude to prevail.
Where is Your Pepper Spray?
Even if you buy pepper spray, it won’t do you much good unless you can deploy it in an emergency. Fortunately, many types of pepper spray come with holsters or are designed to be attached to your keychain. If your pepper spray doesn’t come with these conveniences you’ll have to rig a solution of your own. You might use a snug pocket in your handbag or use your pants’ change pocket, where it’s easy to get the top of the pepper spray.
Practice
Now that you have picked a location to draw your pepper spray from it’s time to actually practice drawing the pepper spray. Remember that pepper spray comes with a safety to prevent an accidental discharge, so you’ll have to practice switching it off. We recommend that you get multiple refills so that you can practice at least once. If you do, loose the pepper spray outdoors, with the wind blowing in the direction you want to spray, on a target you will place in plastic bags and discard before cleaning the area, wearing gloves. Discard the gloves afterward and wash yourself thoroughly, taking care to keep your hands away from your eyes, nose and mouth. Keep the target area away from heat, and keep humans and animals away.
If you don’t want to go through all of these safety steps, perform everything except discharging the pepper spray. Move your hand as if you’re spray paining a tight circle on the target. In any case, many of the rules of firearms safety apply to pepper spray. Never point it at anything you don’t intend to spray! Pepper spray is agonizing, and can provoke serious reactions in some targets.
Think of Scenarios
You’ve bought, placed and practiced with pepper spray. Now it’s time to think about the situations where you might use it. One of the most important things to consider is how to use pepper spray to stop a successful attack in progress. Many assaults take place by surprise, so expect to be hit, pushed or even knocked down before you get a chance to get your spray out. It’s vitally important that you imagine overcoming the shock of an assault and still do everything you can to survive and escape. Beyond that, imagine situations where you’d use pepper spray to protect yourself and the people you care about, check the laws in your area, and commit to using it as a self defense tool when it’s legal and you think it’s the right thing to do.
