Safer Christmas Shopping

By: Mitch McMillin
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:23:26
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Pepper spray or a stun gun should be your new best friend with the holiday shopping season upon us.

It's a well documented fact that crime and theft rise during the Christmas Season. Along with getting dark outside sooner, the darkness provides cover for the criminals making it very risky to go christmas shopping alone, especially for a woman at a large shopping mall that has a large parking lot. It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that a 130 pound woman fighting off a 200 pound criminal what the out come would be. If your family is like my family, the women do at least 75% of the shopping. With all the families out there in the world, that's a lot of easy targets for criminals. Even for men to shop alone, it's just as risky. Most of our ordinary law abiding people do not have the skills to fight off a criminal that probably has some streetwise experience at fighting.

The good thing is there are some very good products available to protect us and our families. I will go over a few of these items so you will have some knowledge about the different products out there in the marketplace today.

1) PEPPER SPRAY:
Pepper spray is probably the simplest and cheapest of the self-defense products. There are several different types of pepper sprays used today. 17% pepper spray, 10% pepper spray, pepper foam, pepper gel, tear gas, Michigan approved pepper spray. There are even sprays to be used on bears and dogs. They also come disguised in different ways such as lipstick, pagers, ink pens, key chains, rings, jogging weights and more. Here is a list of differences between a few of the sprays.

A)OC PEPPER SPRAY:
Contains the ingredient called Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) which is a derivative of Hot Cayenne Peppers. OC causes the eyes to slam shut, with uncontrollable coughing and choking. It creates anintense burning sensation and disorients him for several minutes. Lasts 30-45 minutes. No long term effects.

B)TEAR GAS PEPPER SPRAY:
Causes coughing, irritation and watery eyes. This leads to profuse tearing, an intense burning sensation and disorientation. Some products like MACE Triple Action Pepper Spray, combine the benefits of tear gas with the "burning" effect of Pepper Spray to disorient an attacker.

C)PEPPER SPRAY FOAM:
Acts to "blindfold" and disorient an attacker and cause the same "burning" and closing of the eyes as traditional liquid pepper spray.

D)UV DYE ... PEPPER SPRAY:
Is used in combination with OC pepper spray, Tear Gas pepper spray, or Pepper Spray Foam for easy identification by police of an attacker. UV (ultraviolet dye)is effective for a minimum of 72 hours.

2)STUN GUNS:
Stun guns are a very affordable electronic device that produces up to 1 million volts but very low amps making it non-lethal. Just like pepper spray, stun guns come in several different types and volts. They also come disguised as cell phones, flashlights, batons and large pens. The size varies from fitting in the palm of your hand to large stun batons.

Some models have very useful features such as having a strap that you put around your wrist that is attached to a safety pen. In case a criminal should take it from you, the strap pulls the pen out making it useless, therefore the criminal cannot use it against you. Another model has a loud piercing built-in alarm.

It is foolish for people "large or small, men or women" not to have some form of defense. With the prices so affordable today, there is no excuse not to have it.

P.S. Happy Shopping!

Article source: Expert Articles