Self Defense for Seniors: Pepper Spray or Personal Alarms?

Helping innocent and law-abiding citizens protect themselves in a safe, responsible and humane way is what I am most passionate about. One group of people that I think can really benefit from carrying non-lethal self-defense tools (perhaps more than most) are our senior citizens. Older people, on average, are less apt to handle a physical altercation than they were when they were in their 20s and 30s. That’s why seniors are often targeted by criminals looking for what they think will be an easy score. Seniors can help level the playing field in an attack by securing a number of self-defense items. I’d like to talk about two of my favorites, and those are defensive sprays and personal alarms.

A defensive spray, or pepper spray as they are often called, is an extremely effective, yet relatively safe, means of non-lethal self-defense. Pepper spray is basically just that, peppers. There is a compound in the hot peppers that we eat called capsaicin, and this capsaicin is exactly what gives pepper its spiciness. The heat of a pepper is measured using a thought called the scoville system. The higher the scoville units, the hotter the pepper. Have you ever taken a bite of a habanero pepper? Those are super hot and you’re looking at around 150,000-300,000 Scoville units. The pepper spray that comes out of an average civilian carried pepper spray is approximately 3,000,000 Scoville units. So think of a pepper 10 to 20 times hotter than a habanero, and then think of rubbing that pepper all over your eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. I promise you, the burning sensation is more than enough to stop the vast majority of attackers. One good thing about pepper spray is that this burning sensation eventually goes away after about 30 minutes and then there are rarely any long-term side effects, so you can effectively protect yourself without causing serious and permanent harm to another being. human.

Another option for seniors is a personal alarm, they are not as effective (in my opinion) as pepper spray but can be very effective and are 100% safe and harmless to all parties involved. A personal alarm works by emitting an extremely audible alarm that helps both scare off would-be assailants and attract the attention of anyone in the area who is not completely deaf. Most of these alarms come in the form of a keychain so carrying the device is not something that one usually forgets.

Both options are effective, and both are immensely more effective than not carrying anything and simply ‘hoping’ that you don’t become a victim of a mugging. So do yourself and your loved ones a favor and strongly consider wearing one, the other, or both.

Stay safe,

Puzek security systems