I need your experience!! DC area self-defence?!?!

Working with pumpkins and trees, you probably have a few work tools that would be easily explainable if you kept them close at hand. Axes, hatchets, clippers, pruning knives, long pieces of hardwood, etc.
Pepper Spray is good too, and to answer your question about range, it varies by brand and container type. The little key-chain ones about 5-10 feet, whereas some of the big fire-extinguisher sized ones can shoot 30 feet or more. especially any type that fires in a stream. Regarding legality, pepper spray is required to be registered with the metro police IF you live there and buy it there, but if you are not from there and/or buy it from a vendor outside DC, there is no registration requirement.

I have heard...please correct me if I am wrong...that OC will not work as well if the assailant is on drugs, such as meth, painkillers, etc.

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Yeah, neither do bullets when you get to that point. I think this argument is missing the point anyway: statistically few assailants are going to be this hopped up, and no weapon is a perfect-for-every-situation fix-all. OC is going to be a more appropriate level of force is far more situations than a firearm. And it works often enough to be a useful tool in any person's kit.

First off Bang_bang, take a deep breath, and take my word for it; DC is not the wild west. Chances are, you're not going to need much weapons beyond a shovel or a good stout walking stick.

Statisticly, if you're not an African-American male, between the age of 17 and 23, out at night from 11PM to 3AM, mixed up in gang and/or drug activities, you have better chances of being hit by lightning on a gold course than being shot in DC.

In the circumstances you describe, chances are you will be closed by 11PM, and you're out in plain sight. Being a native of DC, I can tell you that crime is not near as bad as it used to be, and if you google the top 10 dangerous cities in the US, Dc is not even on the list. Now if you were going to be in Birmingham Alabama or St. Louis Mo, I'd worry.

Have plenty of lights set up in whatever lot you rent. Criminals hate light. About every hour, sneak off to the trailer ot truck, and stash half of what you're holding. Put you're drivers license, credit card in a flat card holder in your side pocket, and have a dummy wallet with those fake credit cadrs they send out trying to get you to sign up. Have a bout 20 bucks in small bills. That's your throw down wallet.

A knife is not going to do you much good, as odds are if you are robbed, it's going to happen very fast, with some guy suddenly pulling a Glock on you and telling you to give it up. They are very good at this, and even if you are carrying, in the position you are putting yourself as an open lot salesman, they will take you by surprise. Your own gun under your coat will be useless, and it would get taken by the bad guy anyways. Some dude will look at a tree, and ask "How much is this one?" and the next second he'll have you under the gun if things look right to him. Not a d--m thing you can do about it in the position your going to be putting yourself in. The fact that if they watch, they are going to see you taking in cash, so they know you have it right there on you.

Now, if he's just a street punk with a cheap paring knife, or such, you're in luck. Then you can do whatever you're ready to do with a club, machete, tree saw, or whatever is in your hand. That's the good news.

In the street crime, there is a hiarchy. Guns are reserved for the more serious crimes, usually. This means most face to face muggings are done with the threat of a knife. And a cheesy one at that, usually stolen from a discount store kitchen department. If that. Pepper spray is your friend here. As is the large wrench in your back pocket, or whatever else you have right in your hand when this happens.

Putting yourself out in the open selling things for cash, is going to make you a target, and much more at risk than a normal DC citizen faces going about their day. Harsh but true. You may consider hiring an armed security guard. Is this your own business or are you working for somebody else?

If you're working for somebody, the heck with them. Just do what you have to for your job, but iof you end up with a gun in your face, just give them the money. Why risk your own life for somebody else?


Edit to add; On the brighter side of things, I've never carried a gun, and I've been a life long resident of the DC area, and being I'm pushing 70 years of age, that's a while. I've never been mugged, never been robbed, broken into, or car jacked. Yet the better half and I have been all over the town on afternoon and evening outings. DC is a pretty calm place most of the time, and the bad rep is from a pretty small geographical area. Stay out of some parts of Southeast after dark, and you'll be fine. Like I said, most of the bad stuff happens in drug sales spots, or is gang related. Just going about your business your pretty safe as long as you have even a bit of situational awareness. You won't need your gun if you just keep your eyes open. Leave it home, unless you want to risk seeing the inside of the DC jail from the wrong side of the bars.

So where are you planning on setting up this pumpkin and Christmas tree sales?

"I think we are setting up around the Falls Church area, but I'm not positive. I was able to land a job with a friend and his father, who happen to own a Christmas tree farm near my house. They have been taking their trees up to DC for a while now...this is my first year helping them."


Aw heck B_B, that's the nice clean suburbs in Virginia. Safe as a church lunch social. As long as you're gonna be in Virginia, you can CCW, no sweat!

The homies would have to cross the Potomac River to get to ya.

If you go right across the river and go up Wisconson ave. for a bit, you'll find Rocklands BBQ. Some of the best BBQ briskett this far from Texas. On you're side of the river is Ray's Hellburger, home of the Washintonian magazine rated best burger in the D.C. area.

Just down from there on RT 1 is old town Alexandria. Some great dining places right on the river.

Carl.

LOL! Way to defuse the situation Carl.

"I purchased some OC spray, packing some RAID Hornet spray, and will have the "throw wallet" and a good sharp knife that I need during work hours. "


No, no, bang_bang. Don't do the hornet spray thing. It's opening a bad can of legal worms, and you're better off just sticking with the pepper spray. If you want to up the level, get the Kimber pepper blaster. Gives you more range with a great delivery system.

Carl Levitian said:

"I purchased some OC spray, packing some RAID Hornet spray, and will have the "throw wallet" and a good sharp knife that I need during work hours. "


No, no, bang_bang. Don't do the hornet spray thing.

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Well I hope there arent any bees on in those pumpkin bins or on the lot I hate bees:banghead: