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Best handgun for home - follow up

Robin
An option for some folks hesitant to use a firearm maybe commercial grade capsium spray. After a period of extensive effort of trying to get my daughter comfortable with a defensive firearm, I gave up. It was a danger to her and I believe she would be hesitant to use it in an emergency. It's just her nature. I had a LEO friend work with her on the techniques and safety issues of using mace type defensive spray, including suffering the effects herself. She is now armed to the nines with various sprays. I know the spray is not an equal substitute for someone trained with a firearm but I feel it is a viable alternative for this situation.

Good suggestions and comments, she played high school women's softball and she does have a short style aluminum softball bat in addition to the spray. As I recall, she used to have a pretty good swing.

Edit: Jonk, My father-in-law worked as a service man for the power company. Part of his job was turning power on and off for folks that did not pay their bill timely. One particular address was known to have a mean german shephard that would bite if it was loose in the yard. Before going to the meter, he grabbed his dog spray or thought he did. It was some stuff called "Bee Bop" designed to spray wasp nests from a distance. Long story short, when the dog attacked, he sprayed the dog with a generous dose of Bee Bop killing it almost instantly. The power company had to pay the owner for the loss of the dog but my father in law was the neighborhood hero for a while. Maybe Bee Bop would work as a lethal substitute for a firearm? Sounds mean and maybe dangerous in a in-home environment
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • partisan
    Good option, Robin. I have a daughter that fits yours to a tee!!
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  • beantownshootah
    Careful with the pepper spray indoors.
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  • SCOUT5
    Of course we are all aware the biggest draw back to the sprays are affecting yourself if they are used. However sprays can be a very good option in certain situations, sometime better that a handgun. An option to use a weapon, in this case spray, is better than no option. In a bad enough situation getting hit with the spray yourself may not be the worse that can happen. It sounds like you gave her a good option with good training, now let's hope she never needs it.

    Scout
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  • leeblackman
    Pepper spray's effects vary from person to person. If she sprays it in doors she could end up incapacitating herself. When i went to the sheriffs academy we used and got sprayed with Phase 4 brand pepper spray (over 2 million schofield heat). They told us that about one in every thousand people were immune to the effects of pepper spray and simply didn't feel the pepper heat do to their body chemistry. There were less than 30 of us in the class. It made me useless when I got sprayed, but one of my classmates was up and helping everyone out after about a minute later when he got sprayed. I've actually seen a video where a large male was sprayed and beaten over the head (lethal blows) with a baton and still attempted to overpower and officer.
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  • quickmajik
    pepper arisol just makes my face numb, but really doesnt effect me much. I have sprayed myself with some at a flea market, and have had one of the crowd control pepper bombs blow up pretty much at my feet, face gets numb and my eyes water, if anything it clears my sinuses. The chemical stuff is worse but not bad.. I'd recomend a back up with alittle more force behind it, a basic fighting / defense class or Knife, Telescopic baton, taser, something that will bring blood or bring a person down..
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  • Beeramid
    A good OC FOAM will help a lot in those indoor type scenarios. They say that OC will not be effective on certain people, 10% to be exact. I think I've seen most of them.[:o)] On some it takes up to a minute or so to activate and render them useless.
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  • jonk
    Not so much for stopping a perp, but something just as dangerous...

    The neighbor used to have a wolf/dog hybrid. Mean SOB. Well despite the 5 foot high fence, one day the beast saw me and in one mighty leap cleared it and charged. I happened to have a can of mace on me- purest chance, I had been biking and often took it just in case of a dog charging. I emptied that can into the thing's face and as long as I was spraying, it confused and halted the animal. As soon as it was empty it resumed its attack and got a nice bite out of my behind. Good thing it bit my wallet or I might have needed stitches. Fortunately by that time I had moved close enough to my porch that it didn't have a chance to bite again, or go for the throat- it only got my butt as I had to turn to open the door.

    The wolfdog later got out and got run over by a car when it charged into a busy street. Good riddance.

    Just my experience with sprays. If I'd had my 9mm that creature wouldn't have touched me.

    Now consider you have a crack crazed intruder. You really think mace or pepper spray will stop him? He probably won't even notice. But notice or not, a .45 will stop him. I recommend a good 1911 with crimson trace grips, or some other .45 with under barrel laser.
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  • leeblackman
    Dogs are more of a deterrent. Like home alarm systems, they deter people from coming into your place and going to the neighbors instead. Its not a bad idea. Anything that would make her less tempting to a would be criminal is good. But once a threat is imminent she needs the ability to stop it. Pepper spray may or may not be good enough. In some extreme cases the only way to stop the aggressor and neutralize the threat may be to actually incapacitate the individual using lethal force. This means hitting the central nervous system with enough force so it can no longer allow bodily movement (Head or spine shot) or causing enough blood loss to the brain (40% total blood mass of body) so it no longer functions. Either way would pretty much require a gun.

    I hate to say it but some woman just have a victim mentality. Its kinda a genetic thing I think, maybe instinctive. They will protect their babies, but expect a man to protect them. Not saying all woman are like that, but I've met plenty that seem to fit that profile.
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  • sentry dog 69
    I have two german shepards. One black and the other is black/tan. They would not hurt a fly but will bark at anyone they do not know. Several homes in our subdivision have been burglarized but not ours or any of the surrounding houses.

    Also, I have a sshotgun for my wife to use. She has arthritis in her hands and cannot work the action on a semi-auto pistol or pull the trigger on a revolver. She can push the safety on the shotgun and can work the action. I told her that she could fire a warning shot if needed but the second shot had better be dead on...BUT if someone comes IN the house on her...fire for effect.
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  • gary wray
    Granny on the Bev Hillbillies had it right...the best home defense weapon by far is looking at the perp down the barrel of a shotgun. No spray, no pepper, no question...just that big barrel looking back at him or her. Get an O/U, equip it with a light (the wonders of tape work nicely), put it in the safe room to retreat to in the house if someone gets inside, and with cell phone and gun ready, stand your ground. Hopefully, it won't be needed, but if so, one shot would be about all that would be necessary. My family in the inner city followed this advice several years ago when they were surprised by a drunk intruder, standing in their hallway. With no time to retreat, my father grabbed the 12g I had given him from the umbrella rack, and when the guy saw the business end of the shotgun looking at him, he literally jumped in the air, reversed himself and ran through the screen front door and pole valuted over the porch rail out into the street! Mom and Dad had a laugh later but the moral is that shotguns tend to end the situation rather quickly, one way or the other.
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