Carrying Pepper spray... how and why?

[shortfatoldguy]

"Spitfire" on keychain. Range is not as good as the standard 2oz cannisters, but it's easy to have in hand and I like the ergonomics of it a lot.

Everyone needs to have non-lethal options available.
1. Spray
2. Run
3. Call it in and be the first to make LE contact so you're the victim instead of the OG.

 

[xsquidgator]

I agree with having pepper spray as just one more tool or option to have along. I've found that carrying mine on a little lanyard hooked to a small carabiner ring on my belt or to a belt loop works well, with the pepper spray hanging off that and going into my weak side pocket with my keys. I've practiced enough to be able to naturally reach down with my weak (left) hand, reach along the lanyard and pull the pepper spray off the leash (it's a spitfire, which snaps off of the lanyard and has a decent enough safety catch to prevent an oops discharge I hope).

I figure it can't hurt to have it especially since I'm not much of a HTH fighter, and I can carry it more places than I can legally CCW.

 

[John Henry Holliday]

One more option when lethal force might not be the way to go.

 

[highdesert]

I added OC spray (Fox labs keychain size) to what I carry after two separate incidents of people getting up close, shouting, trying to start a fight with me, while I was carrying. One guy's dogs attacked mine and I was asking him "why are they out running around in the neighborhood?", and the other guy got bent out of shape because I had my daughter's stroller on our neighborhood tennis courts.

In both cases the idiots were probably unarmed. In both cases, I was able to calm the idiots down and back away, but as we all know some people (bullies) take that as a sign of weakness and initiate an attack if they perceive weakness.

Both guys were much larger than me. After the 2nd incident, I realized I needed a non-lethal option that I wouldn't hesitate to use.

The only risk I see in carrying OC is that you could misjudge a situation and end up pulling it on someone who is armed with a deadly weapon.

highdesert

 

[MudCamper]

Why not take the CCW course and carry a pistol (instead) legally?

Because I live in a county in California where you canNOT get a CCW unless you are politically connected, rich, a celebrity, or all of the above. California is a discretionary-issue state, not a shall-issue state.

 

[John Henry Holliday]

I could also add to what Mudcamper said. Even in areas that do allow ccw's, some of us can't afford to pay the government sums of money for them to give us permission to carry what we already have a Constitutional right to carry.
Most people I know are more afraid of getting sprayed in the eyes with OC then they are being shot, so I think all the negative comments about OC spray and also about using against persons carrying weapons are opinions and I treat them as such.
Certainly there are isolated cases of people getting sprayed and it having no affect, but there are also isolated cases of persons getting shot with .45s and not going down.
I do not feel any less safe carrying DPS X-Stream OC spray than I would carrying a gun.

 

[Mtnvalley]

Like another poster upthread, I carry an ASP Street Defender (larger than the Key Defender, slightly longer range and capacity, bigger kubaton, still rides inside the waistband comfortably with keys sticking out). Add another sturdy keyring or three between the unit and your keys...solely so that it hangs over your belt more easily, of course. I also find my keyring to be a handy place to keep a Leatherman Squirt, and don't find the extra few ounces at the end of the ring to be burdensome...

Carrying this thing in your hand down the street or across a lot doesn't look out of place at all; you're just carrying your keys (with the Defender parallel to your forearm).

One advantage of this system that hasn't been mentioned: you can buy an inert refill cartridge with the same spray pattern and distance, for training purposes. Wind might be a variable as mentioned, but knowing the basic spray characteristics seemed sensible to me.