Pepper spray

My daily carry consists of a small revolver, speed strip, and a small can of OC or a sap.

Being an average small town fella not inclined towards trouble, I'm really a believer in having something intermediate on hand. Being trained and certified as LE is likely to help in an off duty confrontation, especially if it is a previous client. I don't necessarily count on it though.

I guess the question is, can you reasonably elucidate your choices and actions?

Anyone who really understands OC realizes it has caveats. Wind direction, rain, ambient temperature, and the ever present variable of individual tolerance. Generally, it affects everyone...eventually. Most everyone in my academy took a good 30 seconds to a minute to feel any appreciable effects. I don't need to explain that can be an eternity when stuff is going down. Now, most of us run into a cloud of it, wince, cough, and curse, then get on with business. Here's a consideration. LEO learns to work through it. Know who else does? Troublemakers in prison who consquently get sprayed alot. Honestly, if I ever spray someone off duty, I'm fully expecting to go hands on. It might work in that time span, or it might not. If nothing else, I at least I have the comfort of knowing they'll be cooking nicely while the street cops sort things out.

It is also my considered opinion that any time OC is deployed it is a serving of a.....fecal sandwich, which everyone gets a bite of. The goal is to make the other guy take a bigger bite than you.

On that note...the sap. It is legal to carry in my home state. It becomes deadly force when used above the shoulders, it remains intermediate on torso and limbs. While I am used to OC and it's caveats, my family is not. My wife has severe asthma. I don't want to use OC in or near my car where I may have to drive quickly. Therefore, I do believe the sap becomes a viable option in my world.

Being a new age Peace Officer, I've never struck anyone with a sap unless training, but I have developed a confidence in them through that training.

It could be that I ain't well wired, but I asked my wife to go at me with a sap like she meant it. Maybe I'd left socks on the floor or the toilet seat up that day, but boy howdy! She sure delivered...thus, I am a believer.

I've used OC on several aggressive dogs. It has honestly never been that impressive, but we did make our escape. It didn't have a dramatic effect as much as the dogs seeming to casually decide we weren't worth the effort.

At the end of the day, I feel I can elucidate that I'm an aging, broken down fella, And a far cry from Chuck Norris, therefore i can justify an intermediate weapon. Should I need my firearm in a lethal encounter, I would expect to elucidate that I was scared for my life right then...not a minute or so in the future.

On OC, cone vs stream is the never ending debate. In my part of the world, we all hate foam and gel, but it's what we have to use in a hospital setting.

Best spray I've found is Phantom OC from Sabre. It's the same million SHU as any other Sabre spray, but much finer with a much more immediate effect.

I've enjoyed the many different shared perspectives here. Always something interesting to consider.
 

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