Who carries pepper spray?

I have some in my vehicle. But I’m going to start carrying it on my person.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

I started carrying the little Pom, clip to the pocket unit quite some time ago. Part of my EDC.

I started carrying a small 19 gram container of Sabre Red Gel Pepper Spray when I am out running errands here locally. I started carrying the pepper spray in addition to my EDC firearm, (that I have always carried) during Covid. Like elsewhere, it seemed like people lost their minds with the mandatory masking, isolating and 6 foot spacing. Some folks started confrontations and fights over small perceived or actual issues. Locally we also saw a real uptick in very aggressive panhandlers cornering people in parking lots and refusing to accept no/go away and this issue is still ongoing.
Getting older, with a history of multiple back surgeries and bad hips, I no longer have the mobility to rapidly retreat from a threat without tripping over my own feet . I wanted to have another option available to help break contact with an aggressor and to have a defensive option for those incidents that do not rise to the lethal force threshold.

The more I listen to Chuck Haggard, the more I like the idea of pepper spray.

I would rather de-escalate with pepper spray than with a gun.

More options is better.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Just don't carry your pepper spray into Canada. It's a prohibited weapon there, and possession could get you up to a 10-year sentence.

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What, me worry?

Silly laws. Exactly why I don’t need to go there.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

I've talked about this before but I ran into people at work who dared me to shoot them all the time. Some of them dared me to shoot them when I wasn't even carrying a gun.

But every time I started shaking up my OC I got instant compliance.



I carry spray everywhere. FWIW I had a cop tell me once that the little cans are worthless. The can I carry (pictured) is 1.9 OZ which is as big as what CSPD carries

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Retired Career Security Guard

If you have never tried the brand you want to carry buy an extra to learn what spray pattern and what distance it will spray.

I've carried my 4 ounce Fox Labs 5.3 the last few bike rides I was on. There is a German Shepherd that really scared me last week. He ran about 40 yards to the road and bit at me, did not get me. I did not want to go by him again without some spray. I've sprayed him 2x now. 1st time was a good face hit. 2nd time was an OK hit but further distance. Now he runs to the edge of his property but won't come close to me. The 1st hit/spray, he instantly turned and headed home. Very much worth the money.

I usually have OC off duty. It only makes sense to have some intermediate force available. For that, I carry Sabre pepper spray, stream configuration. Been hit with the cone stuff by my co-workers too many times to have an appreciation for it.

I prefer my 2.9 oz can of Sabre "Phantom" OC at work, but it's a bit much for daily carry. Good for dog walking though. A friend of mine busted his can of Sabre yesterday. That stuff is the gift that keeps on giving. He's still wiping OC off his belt, holder, etc. and cursing every time he touches his eyes. I've laughed alot today, at his expense.

I will never go to Canada. There’s also several states here in the US that I will never go to because of like laws.

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Two Handguns every day

Had a dog in Florida that thought I looked kind of tasty. To make a long story short I didn’t want to shoot him so gave him a shot of pepper spray. Changed his mind completely. I don’t go anywhere without Sabrea Red Pepper Gell.

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Two Handguns every day

I have a SABRE Advanced Pepper Spray alongside the spare magazines in my truck, and my wife carries one in her vehicle as well. It's our first line of defense against any aggressive individuals who may approach our windows during a road rage incident.

Got them from Amazon (of course... )

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Life Member GOA and NRA

Everyone I know that carries it, cops included, have always sprayed themselves via some accident or malfunction.

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No school like the old school.

As part of his training my son got pepper sprayed and shot wit tazer. He said the pepper spray was worse.

I want to agree BUT damn there’s some good Walleye fishing up there. And a lot of good people who are no different than us. Just born into the wrong country.

Pepper Spray-----I've heard the name---don't know the first thing about it.

From what I've read here, it works---as a preliminary deterrent. Is it fair to say it disables an adversary enough to prevent the necessity of resorting to loud noises and muzzle flash---or simply delays it?

Ralph Tremaine

Always good to have a less lethal option.

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213th FBINA

In my car.

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I’m your Boogie Man, uh huh.

I have a couple of the 4oz containers of the FOX Labs spray.........I usually won't carry it in the truck with me, because I worry about it bursting in the summer, or freezing in the winter. Anyone ever have any issues with environmental effects on these cans of spray........

Would love to have access to it, but like in Canada, it's banned in both Australia and New Zealand.

Marinvet: my canisters label states 120 F is the upper limit.

I had a full can pop its top in a hot car. No fun at all.

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Rule of law, not a man.

As does mine.........I'm guessing a hot summer day in Kansas is gonna top that...........I don't want to have to clean it up.

I put a can of either POM or UDAP through the washer and dryer by accident. It didn't leak and it didn't malfunction afterwards.

When I worked for G4S day they issued us Saber Red pepper gel. Before we were allowed to carry it we had to be sprayed with it. Saber red took between 30 seconds and a minute to incapacitate me.

There used to be a video on YouTube of a female marine named Douglas getting sprayed with OC. When she got sprayed you could see the look of shock on her face. She turned around to the people filming her and said is this it? When it finally hit her, it hit her but she was able to complete the confidence course with a face full of it.

That's something to keep in mind it's not going to stop somebody immediately. I mean some people it will but be prepared for it not to

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Retired Career Security Guard

Since I'm not in professional law enforcement, I'm neither trained, nor obligated, to initiate or engage in a measured escalation of violence, therefore, pepper spray isn't included in my self defense preparations..

I hope you meant “nasty”, not “tasty”. Wouldn’t think about eating one personally.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

as the last time I read, pepper spray is not legal to use in Pa., same as double edged boot knives to carry.

There are two products widely available, pepper spray (think aerosol) and gel (thick, paint-like). The latter won’t require decontamination of the whole room or building where it was deployed. Outdoors there may not be much difference.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

We had a young dog dig a can of pepper gel out of a car door pocket and puncture it. On a road trip. 700 miles from home.
Hilarity ensued.

I have good UDAP hard plastic holsters, which I consider mandatory, for our bear spray.

I need to find something for the small cans.

I don't think cleanup is the reason for the gel. Gel is not as affected by a breeze like the spray and it's less likely to be blown "off course". Of course that also means you need to be able to direct the gel where it is likely to do the most good. The gel is less likely to get blown back in your face if your confrontation just happens to put you downwind. Also the gel has a tendency to stick to the target, rather than be widely dispersed atomized droplets.

True that. So I did not carry any (along with, obviously, my pistol) when we went to Jasper and Banff NPs in 2018.

Once we arrived in Jasper we were met with strong admonitions that anyone intending to do any hiking should carry bear spray because of the constant presence of grizzly bears. So I bought a canister and carried it clipped to my belt. Nothing to purchasing it. Pay for it and you have it.

Bear spray is just a more potent version of OC spray in a much larger container. So what was prohibited at the border was readily available (and encouraged) once inside.

Coming back into the USA, it was not an issue. I forget now if US Customs even asked.

I now carry that bear spray canister in my Jeep Wrangler, although not for bears. We don't have grizzlies in NorCal. I have encountered our native bears here, and if one is careful I have not experienced or been told of bear encounters despite their large numbers. They are not unusual to see wandering our little community. They are constantly seen on game cameras.

My use for it in the Jeep is that my bride, myself and our dog like to go for rides in our endless (and beautiful) back country. Every once is a while (very seldom) someone will have a confrontation with a group in the back country. They will have a predictable pattern; an intoxicated group of somewhere around four+ white males in a lifted SUV or truck on the lookout for persons to harass in the boonies. The total absence of cell service greatly facilitates such recreational opportunities. In such confrontations, which can start out as just verbal harassment, deadly force, or even the display of a firearm, is not legal. Given the disproportion of numbers, I think that the imminent initiation of force by such individuals is an effective and appropriate OC defensive response.

The size of the canister insures a sufficient quantity of gas available to deter continuing any attack, thus allowing escape. If that fails and any such attack intensifies we are getting into deadly force territory. I do not want any such attack to be able to continue to the point where I will need a gun.

That gap, between an instance where a tear gas application of gas would be legal, but falling short of justifiable deadly force, is the ideal legal defensive means. So I also carry a small canister along with my pistol. I have always so instructed my CCW students.

Just to clarify, I have never experienced any sort of negative encounter in the back country. What few contacts we have had have been with people with our same state of mind; blessed to be where we are and enjoying the wilderness.

So what this comes down is being prepared for an eventuality we hope never occurs.

Another iteration of the parachute rule: If once you need it, and don't have it, chances are you will never need it again.

This is The Way.

Congrats on making it to retirement Cap. Too many don't.

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Even older, even crankier....

I thought about carrying pepper spray until a few weeks ago. I was remodeling a building in a pretty nice part of town but there are a lot of homeless people because of some main highways nearby that are a great place to panhandle. We had a big pile of softball size river rock the landscapers removed but one of my floor installers, Jonnie, sees this crazy homeless guy picking up the rocks and start throwing them around the parking lot. Jonnie yelled at him to stop throwing the rocks and clean up that mess! The guy picks up a rock and walks toward Jonnie and says "I'm gonna hit you in the head with this rock"! Jonnie pulls a .38 snub from his truck door pocket so the guy turns and walks away towards the Amazon Prime truck that just pulled in and stands in front of the truck waving his arms and screaming like a maniac. With the drugs people are on today I don't trust pepper spray.

All pepper sprays are not equal. Some are absolute wastes of time and money. I would expect many of those to fail. Reliable brands such as Sabre and Fox Lab have extremely few if any documented accounts of a good hit not stopping the person sprayed. The "magic" of pepper spray has been shown to work even on those who may be hyped up and can not feel pain. The effects on breathing and the on the eyes are mainly involuntary.

This is one of the main reasons that "tear gas" has fallen out of favor for small spray canister use. It is still good for crowd control where most of the crowd will feel it's discomfort. But a drugged up person or even a high tolerance person can shrug off tear gas. Low cost, low quality and quantity pepper sprays will also fail on such persons.

And go to jail for brandishing a firearm.

May not happen in OK. But it will here. Precisely why I will start carrying it daily.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

1. It is illegal to use OC spray that is specifically designed for use on a bear on a human being. This is a *Federal* Law.

Bear spray is stronger than human self-defense spray. It is designed to shoot up to 40 ft whereas spray design for use on humans is designed to shoot up to 10 ft.

ETA I forgot to say this before but the bear spray is under more pressure so if you shoot somebody in the face with bear spray at close range you can permanently damage their eyes.

Also, apparently bear spray is regulated by the EPA as a pesticide and it's not designed for use on humans. And it's specifically says on the Canon it's not designed for use on humans and they've got that little notification that says is a violation of federal law to use this product and manner inconsistent with its labeling.

So apparently, it is technically illegal to spray somebody with bear spray. I've never heard of anybody being prosecuted for it but there it is

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Retired Career Security Guard

At 71 the effectiveness of my fists is way down, and with my arthritis there are days when wielding a stick isn't gonna do much, either. Pepper spray in my pocket gives me a good less-than-lethal capability no matter how creaky I may be the day it's needed.

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Pisgah

Just when I walk my dog. I hope it works on big mean dogs if they try to eat my little French Bulldog. I bought it after a very close call with a dog that came out of nowhere. I was holding my dog as high as I could while a big Rot was jumping up trying to get him. Thank God the neighbor pulled his dog away in time. Pepper spray is kinder than shooting a neighbor's dog.

And less paper work!!!!!

Study up on 'low ready'. Even in Washington it is an option.

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

CA PC 22810 sets forth the lawful usage conditions for use of tear gas weapons, but does not specifically address bear spray. Neither the poster who discussed this nor the sources I checked listed any specific federal statutes with this prohibition. Assuming there is a federal section, is any federal agency going to investigate such a de minimus violation and convince DOJ to prosecute? I would not be in the slightest concerned.

Back to CA PC 22810. Since bear spray is not mentioned, its use as a tear gas weapon, in CA, is not differentiated from any other form of tear gas. Thus, under the basic legal principle that all laws are codified means there is nothing specifically addressing bear spray, thus nothing to prosecute.

If one rereads my original post it is very clear that I advocate taking specific steps not to have to use deadly force, nor even displaying my firearm (CA PC 417, et seq). In other words acting completely lawfully. I lived this for over 30 years in my LE career as well as teaching the applicable laws in academy and college classes. I still do.

I have only had once instance of almost have to draw my gun off duty. It looked as if I was going to have to intervene to stop a third person from being attacked by a much larger individual armed with a motorcycle chain. I carefully planned my approach to delay to the last moment having to draw my revolver and intercede. At the last moment San Francisco PD arrived and halted this slow motion impending ADW. SFPD was focused on the two protagonists. I had not yet drawn, although I was extremely close. So by not having drawn nor otherwise called attention to myself, I was able to just walk away. The point being that I was not going to prematurely react or overreact. That has always been my nature. Not hitting the panic button, again, had been the wisest course of action.

Once an LEO reaches the rank of sergeant, thenceforth and on up that leader is responsible to monitor field operations to make sure his/her troops are in legal and departmental compliance.

Absent proof of specific federal statutes and incidences of federal prosecutions, as well as the circumstances and dispositions of such prosecutions, I fail to see any issue.

My advice still stands.

I have looked all over the internet I cannot find a specific statute. Apparently it's an EPA regulation. Either way I don't care. The only place I carry bear spray is in the mountains where there are in fact bears. Obviously I can justify having bear spray on me. And I suppose if somebody attacked me and I sprayed them I could justify it by saying that's what I had to defend myself.

Beyond that I really don't care what you do

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Retired Career Security Guard

Exactly my point.

There’s no federal law against spraying a human with bear spray. If you can justify it, have at it.

As far as the example of a crazy homeless guy advancing with an upraised BFR - he’s gonna get shot in my neck of the woods.

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Rule of law, not a man.

The EPA regulates bear spray as a pesticide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and requires a minimum size of 7.9 oz while pepper spray is typically sold in 1.5 oz canisters. Bear spray is also dispensed more forcefully than pepper spray.

It says right on the can it is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling. It also says right on the can that you are not supposed to spray humans with it.

I am still looking for a specific chapter and verse

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Retired Career Security Guard

Could someone smarter than me, explain the logic of such a law?

If it's for sale in Canada it's been through whatever their version of the EPA is and they know that it meets Canadian laws. If you bring something in from the United States they don't know that for sure.

I'm guessing that's their logic.

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Retired Career Security Guard

They can put what they want on the can. It may well violate some EPA rule, but nothing that is prosecutable. There are all kinds of regulations about the use of fire extinguishers, but I can still use one to beat an attacker to death if it is otherwise justified.

In the absence of an actual law saying it is illegal, it isn’t.

Attached Images

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Rule of law, not a man.

So you’re counting on a liberal judge and jury to follow the law as it’s written?

Good luck with that.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!