Self Defense - What Makes A Great Pepper Spray

When civilians think about a self-defense product, the most common one that comes to mind is a pepper spray. And for good reason. They are on average close to 90% effective. They are generally very cheap and readily available through independent distributors on the Internet.

That's the easy part. When it comes to making a decision about which one to get it can get a little confusing. And we don't want to add to that confusion we are simply discussing elements of pepper spray that are important for you to know so you can make a good, informed decision and come up with the best value for your product.

The Canister Content- this is the approximate number of shots that are available from the canister you buy. Obviously the more shots you have the better the value. Not all canisters of equal size have the same number of shots. Some manufacturers provide better value than others

Shelf Life- the longer that the product is effective the better the value for you. Most pepper sprays have a shelf life of three years. But some have a shelf life of four years-obviously a better value.

Percentage of OC- oleoresin capsicum or OC is a major ingredient of all sprays. Much has been made of this as a measure of hotness of the pepper spray which is very misleading.

Percentage of Major Capsaicinoids- this is a true level of hotness of a defensive spray. Capsaicin is the strongest of all capsaincinoids. Civilian and law enforcement pepper sprays range from.18% to 1.33% major capsaicinoids. Bear sprays range from 1% to 2% major capsaicinoids.

Scoville Heat Units- is a common measure of hotness and is used by a lot of manufacturers to indicate the relative effectiveness of their product. This is not necessarily the case. A more accurate measure of hotness is the strength of the spray after it has been diluted to make it usable.

Price- is always a major consideration. But look for value in terms of what you get and the effectiveness of the product. That provides a more accurate measure of what it really costs you.

The Supplier- often overlooked as a major consideration. If you have questions about a product, is someone able to answer them? Or as most distributors do this on a part-time basis, will you get an answering machine?

Safety Device- most defensive sprays have one level of safety built-in; some have two.

Those are some important considerations in making a decision about which pepper spray to purchase. Hopefully they have clarified the situation for you to help make your decision easier.

Sabre Pepper Sprays consistently have more shots per ounce than any other spray making it a great value.

Streetwise Pepper Sprays are independently tested and have a shelf life of 48 Months.

The Home Security Superstore is one of the oldest and largest independent distributors of high quality home security, surveillance, spy, self-defense, survival and safety products. We carry a wide range of self-defense products including tasers, stun guns, pepper sprays and other nonlethal weapons that can save your life in the event of an attack.

Self-Defense - Three Tips To Make Your Life Safer

Here are three tips that mostly pertain to protecting you or your loved ones from an assault. That assault can take place almost anywhere but as it turns out, there are a few places that are the most dangerous: parking lots, home and the workplace.

Nearly everyone has heard of accidents happening because of impaired or distracted drivers. We used to think that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs was dangerous and it still is. But what is even more so are people who drive and talk on the phone or worse text on their cell phones. All it takes is a split second for you to become involved in an accident-far longer than it takes to text one word.

What is even more amazing to me is people who have accidents while walking and texting on their cell phones. Maybe you've seen the video of a lady who was carrying her child and talking on her cell phone in a subway station then actually stumbling onto the train tracks-duh. Or how about the video of the man texting on his cell phone while walking down the street and walking straight into a busy intersection?

1. That would be the number one tip-pay attention to what you're doing no matter where you are. If you're distracted, criminals actually prey on those who are distracted. Women who are pushing a grocery cart or a cart filled with anything out of the mall or store are easily distracted by a small child that may be with them or a call on a cell phone. Your life is too valuable to be a target for a criminal who looks for those kinds of distractions.

2. Avoid, if you can, darkened or poorly lit areas such as stairwells at work or in an apartment complex. Parking lots that aren't well-lit also make for dangerous areas especially for women.

3. Always carry some kind of self-defense product with you. Several are available that can attach to your keychain such as pepper spray or even a new 5,000,000 volt stun device. A self-defense product can provide valuable time for you to get away and seek help should you be assaulted anywhere, even at home in a domestic violence situation.

If you follow these three tips you will be way ahead of the game. And here's one more as a bonus: use your common sense. Women, especially, have this built-in radar that senses dangerous situations. Pay attention to it.

This Powerful Stun Gun is 5,000,000 volts and is so small it can be attached to your keyring so it can go wherever your keys go.

Home Security And Self-Defense - Five Tips You Can Follow To Make Your Life Safer

Life is full of perils. Accidents happen all the time. Criminal activity happens more often. People get hit by cars as they step off of a curb. People get electrocuted on a daily basis. People also get struck by lightning. Many of these things are way beyond your control. Home burglary and assaults happen much more frequently and to some extent can be avoided even prevented.

The other day at Costco I saw a woman pushing her grocery cart talking on a cell phone which was a major distraction in and of itself. In her grocery cart was her purse and presumably in her purse was her wallet with her driver's license, credit cards and who knows what else. She got distracted by an employee who was handing out free samples. But this lady left her cart and her purse unattended for close to a minute. We watched her and she was so distracted she wasn't paying any attention to her purse. Maybe she felt that Costco customers were more trustworthy than others. But why?

It would have been simple for a dishonest person to steal her purse and she would never have been any the wiser. She just wasn't paying attention.

Here are five tips that will help make your life safer and prevent you from getting into trouble. They aren't anything brilliant but just make common sense. They will help you prevent home burglary and assaults.

1. Pay attention to your surroundings no matter where you are-even in a big-box store but especially in parking lots and stairwells. Believe it or not, a very high number of assaults occur in parking lots and stairwells. A purse can get stolen anywhere. So pay attention to who is around you and where you are.

2. Don't ever leave packages in the back seat of your car. They make for easy targets for robbers.

3. Carry a key chain pepper spray with you to prevent an assault or robbery. A pepper spray is a very good self-defense product against assault or robbery. One attached to your keys will ensure that it's with you all the time.

4. Install an inexpensive burglar alarm to improve home security. Burglars are mostly amateurs and are easily scared away by a loud alarm.

5. Lock your doors and windows even when you're at home. Amazingly 60% of all home burglaries happen through unlocked doors and windows.

Follow these home security and personal safety tips and they will keep you out of a lot of ugly situations that can cause you trouble.

Self-Defense: Sexual Assault On Campus - Is It Really A Problem?

With colleges and universities starting up all over the country an article about facts on preventing sexual assault on campus caught my attention. If nothing else it is timely even though the statistics are nothing new.

What is new is a new way of looking at it. College freshmen are 17, 18 maybe even 19 years old but are unfamiliar with the ways of the world, especially when it comes to alcohol and alcohol abuse. Unfortunately alcohol is a key part of the college life. Many older college men use alcohol as a way to uninhibited young college female freshmen. If alcohol isn't enough then date rape drugs are readily available.

The statistics that are nothing new show that "one in four college-age women has experienced rape or attempted rape" and even more scary is that "95% of the attacks go unreported which makes sexual assault the most drastically under reported crime in the nation." Is it really a problem? You can decide!

Colleges and universities go to great lengths to downplay or even hide these statistics. They certainly don't want mom and dad worrying about their little girl going off to college. In a recent famous case it was discovered that a major university athletic official committed several sexual acts that were required to be reported. But for one reason or another, the University did not report them.

The article I'm referring to came up with several safety tips on preventing sexual assaults or rapes.

Be aware of your surroundings. Nearly 3/4 of all rapes are planned in advance. So beware of who you're with and where you are.

Trust your instincts. Women are blessed with that unexplainable feeling. When the hair in the back your neck stands up, react and react quickly.

Avoid secluded or unlit areas. That includes parking lots and garages. Even dorm stairwells at night can be dangerous places.

Use the buddy system. When you're attending a party or going anywhere, always have a friend with you. Assailants will pick on one person but are unlikely to attack two or more people together.

Vary your routine. Since so many rapes are planned in advance, change your routine so you don't go the same way all the time.

Don't leave drinks unattended. Date rape drugs are as common as aspirin.

Don't be pressured to drink or to get drunk. 75% of the time the victim or offender or both have consumed alcohol.

Keep your dorm room or apartment locked at all times-even when you're there.

And for crying out loud don't leave a spare key underneath the doormat. Everyone in the world knows that trick.

Self Defense: Comparing Pepper Sprays-3 More Popular Brands

Pepper sprays have long been regarded as the favored self-defense product for women and their personal protection. Part of the reason for that is because they're relatively inexpensive and yet very effective-close to 90% on average. But there are many dozens of manufacturers with hundreds of products to choose from so it can be a daunting task choosing the best one for your self-defense.

Here we're going to compare and contrast features and capabilities of three popular brands: Wildfire, Streetwise and Fox Labs.

Just for some background, all pepper sprays use oleoresin capsicum or OC as a basis for their spray and a common measure of hotness is called Scoville Heat Units or SHU.

Wildfire sprays-are distinguishable from other products in a few ways. They use an 18% concentration of oleoresin capsicum instead of the usual 10 % that most others use and they use 3 million SHU's while most others are 2 million. So they are hotter in that regard. They have a good selection of products with a 36 month shelf life and are all made in the USA.

Fox brands- are used by police, law enforcement, security and military units worldwide. Their sprays have 5.3 million SHU's and have a longer range than most pepper sprays. They are a little bit more expensive but in our opinion are worth it. They have a three-year shelf life with a manufacture date stamped on each container. It is the only pepper spray that claims to be taser compatible and nonflammable.

Streetwise brands-are made in the USA and all have a 48 month shelf life. They have a wide variety of products in two different strengths. One is called Streetwise 18 and the other is Streetwise 23. They use an independent laboratory to test their products and all have a certified heat rating or CHR. The Streetwise 18 Products have a CHR of 180,000 or 46% hotter than competing brands which have an average CHR of 123,000 SHU's. It is derived from 4 million SHU's. Streetwise 23 is 230,000 CHR or 87% hotter than competing brands. This is derived from 5 million SHU's. Streetwise brand has the largest selection of products next to Mace brand which is the biggest.

Whatever brand or specific product of pepper spray you choose you can know that it is going to provide close to 90% effective personal protection and cause no long-lasting damage to the assailant.

Self-Defense: Guard Dog - Why They Are The Best Value In Stun Devices

Value, power, features; those are some of the items you need to consider when you're looking for any stun device. You want the best value. Who doesn't? Most people don't do much shopping and to be perfectly honest it can get a little bit confusing when you're looking for self-defense products because there are so many manufacturers and so many different models to choose from.

In our humble opinion the brand "Guard Dog"produces the best value of all stun guns on the market today. And we don't think that by ourselves. That opinion is supported by literally hundreds if not thousands of customers who feel the same way.

And here's why. Most Guard Dog stun devices are of the disguised variety. Of the 10 most popular models seven of them are disguised as mostly flashlights but some are disguised as cell phones with one disguised as a smart phone. This is an important consideration when you're under assault because it gives you a little bit of an edge. In an assault situation a few seconds of hesitation on the part of an assailant is all you need to pull a self-defense weapon out of a purse or pocket and apply it to the assailant. He will literally be shocked by your smart phone look-alike.

Another reason why these are the best value is because of the price. Literally half the 10 products are in the $25 or lower price range. The most expensive is less than $55.

Power is another reason why these are such great value. Not one of their stun guns is less than 1,000,000 volts with a couple models at 4.5 million volts.

All of their models are rechargeable which saves you a lot of money on batteries. That is another reason why they're such a great value.

All of their stun devices come with a free 18% concentration pepper spray and high quality holster.

The Hotline Stun Gun is a great example of the value we are talking about.

Let's face it, all stun devices do pretty much the same thing. They can disable an assailant for as long as 10 minutes by applying a strong electrical charge that short-circuits his electrical system literally causing his body to seize up so he can't do anything. The effects are not long-lasting-just long enough so you can escape a potentially dangerous situation and seek help.

When you're looking for a great value in a self-defense product, Guard Dog stun guns provide you with power, value, features and models that are not just competitive in the marketplace but we feel are the best.