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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that the law needs changing about right to protect yourself.

179 replies

NumbFeeling · 02/11/2025 11:14

Things are getting out of hand in the country, and the level of violence and sexual assaults is out of control.

AIBU to think that the law needs changing about how we can defend ourselves? For example, if we were allowed to carry pepper sprays someone may have been able to stop further stabbings last night.

I’m not talking about carrying weapons, I’m talking about something that would immobile a killer, which doesn’t maim them. I don’t understand why they aren’t legal TBH.

Police arrive after an attack. Incidents aren’t being prevented, so at the time it’s you against an armed person, and you have no chance.

Things are out of control now, and I think we need to be able to at least have a chance.

AIBU to say we should be allowed to carry pepper sprays or similar?

OP posts:
Carla786 · 09/11/2025 17:24

NumbFeeling · 02/11/2025 11:14

Things are getting out of hand in the country, and the level of violence and sexual assaults is out of control.

AIBU to think that the law needs changing about how we can defend ourselves? For example, if we were allowed to carry pepper sprays someone may have been able to stop further stabbings last night.

I’m not talking about carrying weapons, I’m talking about something that would immobile a killer, which doesn’t maim them. I don’t understand why they aren’t legal TBH.

Police arrive after an attack. Incidents aren’t being prevented, so at the time it’s you against an armed person, and you have no chance.

Things are out of control now, and I think we need to be able to at least have a chance.

AIBU to say we should be allowed to carry pepper sprays or similar?

Op all evidence shows the UK murder rate has been steadily declining since the 2000s.

Yes there has been a lot of widely reported murder recently, but please stop spreading false information that murder has risen to 'out of control' levels.

I agree we need to be aware of self defence methods but we also need to take a step back from instant reaction to the news and assess what is actually going on.

Unless you believe the stats are lying/misrepresented/underreported?'

Carla786 · 09/11/2025 17:26

gannett · 03/11/2025 15:02

It's crazy to me that people will come up with all sorts of batshit ideas for the situation where it's too late and you can't do anything. If someone is rampaging around an enclosed space with a knife and you don't have specific training and a cool head (and a bit of positional luck) then you can't do anything about it apart from run or hide. Bad luck.

But no one comes up with the ideas to prevent the violent thing from happening in the first place, because it's easier to believe that some people are just evil and you can't do anything about them than to actually go deep in terms of the causes (at a guess, and this is mere speculation, but this incident is giving all the signs of something directly caused by the denuding of mental health resources in this country over the past 15 years).

It's actually not random acts of terrible violence that make me despair, it's how normal people react to them.

Yes, people keep ignoring that a Williiams was not an evil psychopath but a paranoid schizophrenic. Black people are 9 times more likely to have schizophrenia. The mental health services need drastic improvement to prevent violence.

Carla786 · 09/11/2025 17:33

This man's article typefies what's wrong with this approach : some valid points, but framing it as 'indigenous native ' vs black and saying only men should carry knives while women have pepper spray is completely unhelpful.

https://writedangerously.substack.com/p/carnage-in-britain-we-must-defend?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true

Carnage in Britain: We Must Defend Ourselves

Reflections on Remembrance Sunday from a Broken Britain

https://writedangerously.substack.com/p/carnage-in-britain-we-must-defend?triedRedirect=true

Another2356 · 14/12/2025 13:48

Agree to pepper spray and tasers.

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