OC/Pepper Spray is an Important Part of your EDC (Everyday Carry).
Let’s look at some of the great aspects of this tool as part of your overall self-defense strategy.
legality-
OC/Pepper Spray is not legal in every state. In Colorado, we are lucky because it is considered a non-deadly force option for self-defense. Remember the two buckets of force concept that Andrew Branca teaches in his Law of Self Defense curriculum. In life, you have two buckets of force to use for self-defense. You have a non-deadly force bucket and a deadly force bucket. If someone is attacking you using non-deadly force ( most courts consider the use of hands non-deadly force) in Colorado and most states you are not allowed to reach into the deadly force bucket to solve your non-deadly force problem. In the non-deadly force bucket, what tools do we have? We have our hands and we may have some other tools that may or may not be legal in the jurisdiction we are in.
In many places tasers, stun guns, and collapsible batons may not be legal to use or possess, and even if they are some of these may be considered deadly force if not used properly or something goes wrong when you deploy them. OC/Pepper Spray tops the list as a non-deadly force tool in my opinion. I do not want to go hands-on with anyone and most of you won’t want to either.
Ease of Concealment-
OC/Pepper Spray is easy to conceal and if you choose the right one it may even be hard to tell what it is. For example, the one I like and carry every day is very easy to conceal because of the size of the container, and it is not easy to tell what it is because the outside of the container is unmarked. It fits in my closed hand and is hard to see from any distance. It has a great clip so it clips into my pocket securely and is ready to use at a moment’s notice. You should never attach keys to your OC/Pepper Spray it makes it hard to conceal, carry and deploy in most cases.
Ease of Use-
Pepper Spray is easy to use and most people can deploy it successfully with a little training. Remember to always warn the attacker and the people around you that you are about to deploy the OC/Spray. I have personally had situations where I warned someone and they decided that they did not want the agony of what I was about to unleash on them, and it ended the incident.
Stealthy Carry and Deployment-
It can be hard to carry and conceal other tools like stun guns, tasers, and batons. OC/Pepper Spray is easy to carry and conceal if you have chosen the right product. I have searched high and low to find the most discrete and powerful product there is and that is easy to conceal and carry. Remember to be like 007 in the carry of your daily self-protection tools. You always want the element of surprise on your side.
Inexpensive-
If lost, stolen, or if you have to throw it away or give it up in a non-permissive environment what have you lost? A few dollars? Replace it and move on. It’s not like losing an expensive knife or even a pocket gun.
Options-
When we carry a non-deadly force option it helps us in our defense when we have to use deadly force. Remember the hammer and nail saying everyone uses in our industry. When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. If we have only a firearm everything looks like deadly force. When you have considered options the legal system is more likely to consider your story and your use of force reasonable. I could have used non-deadly force (OC Pepper Spray) but I felt I had no choice but to use deadly force right away under the life-threatening circumstances I was facing.
As a Certified Use Of Force OC/ Pepper Spray Instructor, I highly recommend that it be carried everywhere you go. There are many places in life we can not carry our concealed firearms legally. OC/Pepper Spray gives us a tool that we can use successfully if necessary in those non-permissive environments.