Self defence spray/pepper spray

[TearsAndTeats]

Can’t stop thinking about those people on the train, armed only with a jack Daniel’s bottle waiting for the carriage doors to open.

i know pepper spray is illegal, but why? Should it be?

genuinely looking for reassurance, debate etc. I’d feel much better having a directional spray. I know women who DIY “bug spray” etc to carry around with them when walking dogs alone, but the wind etc makes these not appealing.

i really think pepper spray should be legal in the UK.

I understand your point about an escalation ladder but people intending to harm you are usually already armed, as was the case with the man on the train.

I keep seeing news reports on my Facebook feed about men preying on and assaulting women and young girls. I’m seeing multiple reports a day and it’s made me very worried now that the evenings are getting darker a lot earlier. A few months ago I was walking around my local town with my eight year old daughter and noticed two men loitering and glaring at us. It felt menacing. I think women should be allowed to carry pepper spray.

This is heartbreaking.

We do not need everyone carrying weapons. Look at the situation in the US.

You know it’s much more likely that you would be killed in a car accident than a random attack like on the train? So you should all stop driving and going in cars

Compared to the US where you can carry whatever you want for self defence (including guns) we are a low crime society.

Allowing people to carry weapons would
make it easier for criminals to arm themselves and leave police powerless
to disarm them through stop and search.

You can use anything you might already have with you for self defence like keys, a long metal hairpin or a metal torch. Rucksacks hastily put on your front may also help protect against being stabbed in a situation like that. A deo spray in the eyes at close range hurts like hell too (I speak from experience!)

Remember, in the US where everyone is allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves, they regularly have school
shootings.

In the UK we had one school shooting (Dunblane) in the 1990s.

The government banned all handgun ownership as a result.

We haven’t had a school shooting since.

Seems like a price worth paying to me.

Gil Scott Heron song ..the gun
Must be about 40 yrs old but still relevant sadly.
When other folks give up theirs ..I'll give up mine.

In Canada most crimes are committed with illegal guns.
Pocket knives are readily available and not a weapon of choice. I got a large baguette at lunch and bemoaned the lack of a proper knife to cut it in half. Dh and Dd left theirs at home.
Pepper spray also readily available but even hikers are switching to airhorns.
Wasp insect killer (expandable spray) is suppose to be very good.

I think the police and train staff did an outstanding job of protecting those poor train passengers. The emergency plans worked really well, the professionals responded according to their training and everyone did their jobs brilliantly so it would seem, so there was an incredibly fast response for such a serious incident.
this stuff is newsworthy in this country because it’s so rare unlike in some other countries where mass violent crime happens more frequently.
I would never want to see armed police patrolling up and down on every train just in case. I’d like to see better mental health services obviously, and better education and so on (with focus on safeguarding and prevent to keep young people out of extremism) to prevent this and similar crimes in future. I will be thankful I live in a country like this, where we don’t have to fear gun crime, police might not be great at burglaries but respond amazingly to serious horrors like this, and where heroes like Sam Zitouini and others looked out for their fellows and people take care of each other.

I haven't made up my mind on pepper spray. However, there are more ways to defend oneself that are possible now, and I wish more people were aware of these.

The SAS officer Chris Ryan has some excellent self defence books, especially Safe.

He points out that hairspray is quite legal to carry, and would have a similarly unpleasant effect to hairspray. He notes that other handbag contents like keys, combs, scissors, pens could also be used for stabbing.

People fixate on the fact that you can't openly carry anything if you say it's for self defence. We can debate that. But factually, you can carry a lot of things legally if you have another reason to do so, and let's face it, if you don't shout about having it, mainly people will be none the wiser. And if there IS a major incident & you happen to have a knife etc on you which you use for self-defence, I very much doubt you would be punished for this.

Airsoft guns pose the risk of serious eye injury, including permanent blindness. These again legally need a valid excuse but they can be used.

In France, tear gas is legal to buy, it could definitely be useful here, though I'm still undecided as to whether we should legalise offensive spray.