Start Prepping Here – Prepping for Personal Safety – Part 1

When I was newly married and living on a college campus with my husband, one evening I went out to pick up a few things at the grocery store, not a half a mile away.  My husband owned a car when we got married, so I drove it to the grocery store.   Pulling into a parking place, I noticed a guy sitting on the hood of a car several cars down from me.  I noted it, but didn’t put too much thought into it until after I got out of the car and started to the store.  Instead of staying where he was he got up and followed me.  I was a ways ahead of him and made it into the store quickly.

While I was in the store, I kept a close eye on what was going on around me.  I couldn’t see him anywhere, so I purchased my groceries and chalked it up to an overactive imagination – mostly.  Before I left the store, I glanced around to make sure the coast was clear and then headed toward my car.  The guy was standing with his back against the wall of the store just out of eye-shot of where I had glanced around to make sure that he wasn’t around.  He started following me again toward my car.    What was I going to do?  How was I going to keep myself safe?  I’ll tell you a little later in this post.

One thing I will tell you is that one incident taught me a lot!  It taught me that I could be in danger so close to my apartment.  It also taught me that anyone can get attacked – I have NEVER had a Barbie doll figure.  I learned that there were steps that I had already been taught that did help me and could use to protect myself; steps I could take to ensure my safety.

Here are some things that did help me or other items that I could have carried that could have protected me in that situation.

Mental awareness is our key to safety

This is different than mental preparedness.  I think the best way to describe mental awareness is by using a scene from a movie.  Do you all remember the scene from the Bourne Identity where Jason Bourne is sitting in a cafe across from Marie.   After discussing the fact that he doesn’t know who he is, he tells her that the first thing he did was to catch the sight lines and the exits.  He followed that up with the fact that he can list off all of the license plate numbers from the six cars outside, the waitress is left-handed and the guy at the bar weighs 215 pounds and “knows how to handle himself.”  He proceeds to tell her that the best place to look for a gun is the cab of a truck outside.

Do you remember the scene?  If you not, you can find it here.  He knows what’s going on around him.  He’s very aware of everything even if he doesn’t know who he is.

A great way to promote mental awareness is something that I have learned about called Kim’s Game.  In “Kim’s Game” a plate or tray of objects is placed out.   Look at it for 30 seconds or so and then cover it.  How many of the items can you recall?  The more you play it, the more you observe life as it is lived around you, the better you will get at it.

EDC

In regards to safety, EDC or Every Day Carry will vary from person to person, and a lot of what you will want to and be allowed to carry will depend on where you work and how you travel to get there.

Keys

Did you know that keys can be used as a personal safety weapon?  Assuming you have multiple keys slide one between your pointer finger and your middle finger.  Slide another from the same ring between your middle finger and ring finger, and then put another between your ring finger and your pinkie finger.  If you ever find yourself in a position where someone confronts you or tries to attack you, do this with your keys and then punch them HARD in the face.

An Air horn

This is something that I learned about in the last year or two, but it makes sense.  If someone wants to hurt you, they don’t want anyone seeing them do it.  An air horn will make itself heard and therefore make you seen.  This can’t do any damage, so you need to take that into consideration.  This may be an upside for you if you simply want a deterrent.

Pepper Spray / Mace

This is also a deterrent form of self-defense.   Pepper spray or a can of Mace can be sprayed at a attacker in the EYES.  This will cause temporary blindness in the person at whom you sprayed it.  Pepper spray works by spraying capsaicin (a natural derivative of spicy pepper plants) toward an assailant.  The capsaicin in the spray then inflames the mucous membranes of eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.  It causes the eyes to involuntarily close.  This can last for up to fifteen minutes!  Pepper spray can cause difficulty breathing, choking, and coughing.  These side effects could last up to 30-45 minutes.

Mace, on the other hand, is one of the brand names of tear gas out there.   This is a nerve agent used in tear gas for crowd and riot control.  These are not known to do any lasting damage.

Many products for personal use on the market today are actually a combination of pepper spray and tear gas.  Some even add in a UV dye which will help the police identify an assailant.

If you are concerned about harming someone’s eyes (maybe if your child accidentally could get into this) according to the Vision Eye Institute, a single exposure to pepper spray shouldn’t cause any lasting damage to the eye.  Repeated exposure could cause damage to the cornea.

You do need to check out the laws in your area because, believe it or not, some areas don’t let you carry pepper spray or mace.

A Knife

Second verse same as the first.  You do need to check out the laws of your state and municipality to see which kinds of knives you are allowed to carry.  There are so many different laws as to how long the blade can be.  Laws about fixed blades vs. folding knives etc.  Make sure you check them out.

I have never used my knife in self-defense, but I carry a legal pocket knife on me at all times. Sometimes it blows my mind to think that there are people out there who don’t carry a knife!  A knife is one of my primary tools that I carry with me daily.  The intent of carrying it has never been to harm anyone.   I open boxes or cut cords of various sizes and widths.  I could whittle down a stick to a nice point if needed and so much more with my trusty knife.  The great thing is that it also could double as a self-defense weapon if I needed it to.  Since it is almost always clipped on the pocket of my skirt, it’s always with me for whatever reason I need it to be.

A Stun Gun

I know that many people think of a stun gun as a weapon that harms – and it absolutely can.  I was challenged to think of a stun gun in a different capacity recently.  Pulling out a stun gun in itself can be a huge deterrent to someone attacking you.  If just pulling it out doesn’t deter someone then you can activate the stun gun in the air.  Your potential assailant will see the electricity jump from one of the exposed electrodes to the other.  It will also make an impressive sound as you activate it.  You’ll literally hear the jolt of electricity.

If this in itself doesn’t deter someone, then hitting them with the electrodes will stop them.  It will interrupt some of the signals between the brain and the voluntary muscles temporarily.  This in turn will cause muscle weakness, loss of balance, confusion and disorientation.  All of this should allow you to get away from your attacker.

Now one of the down sides to a stun gun is that they aren’t legal everywhere.  In my glorious (cough, cough) state of Illinois, we can own a stun gun if we have a FOID card.  FOID stands for Firearm Owners ID card.  The government so graciously allows us to own guns if we have a FOID card.  They also allow us to purchase ammo, but only if we have a FOID card. (Please note the dripping sarcasm of those last couple of sentences.)  Here in Illinois, we also have to have a background check in order to purchase a stun gun (despite the fact that they are only $10 on Amazon!) and we also have to wait 24 hours to get it.  REALLY?  Yea.  It so sucks!

A Firearm

Whether or not you are able to carry a firearm will depend upon the laws of your state and which permits that you have for your state.  This will also depend upon where you work.  If you work in a public building, they may very well not allow you to carry a firearm.

It’s interesting though.  I know of a business in our area that actually encourages their employees to legally carry while working.  It’s probably one of the safest places around town to work!

An important note about each of these

No matter what you choose from this list, whether one, all, or none, you MUST feel comfortable handling the item.  If you are not comfortable handling a firearm, don’t carry it with you every day, until you feel confident in its use and the laws which govern it’s use.  If you carry a knife, make sure that you aren’t afraid that one of your children or grandchildren will get into it.  Devise a way to keep it secure BEFORE you handle it!  If you are going to carry a stun gun, then make sure you aren’t worried it will accidentally go off.  Make sure you practice (not on a person, please) using it so you know how it operates.

So back to my story

So I’m walking back to my car when I realize that the guy had been waiting outside the store for me and started following me again.  I put my keys between my fingers and make a very tight fist.  There was a family walking about ten feet ahead of me.  I hurried up and joined them as they were headed in the same direction as my car.  As I hurried to my car, I hopped in quickly and locked the doors.  It wasn’t just seconds later that I was pulling out of the parking lot.   I was safe though in part to some of the things that we’ve talked about here – situational awareness and being ready to use my keys as a weapon, but ya know what?  I’m so glad that I didn’t have to.

What About You?

What kinds of items do you use for self defense?  Would you add anything to this list?  What kinds of things do you feel comfortable actually carrying.  I’d love to hear!  Would you share this article today?  I think there are a lot of women out there who feel defenseless because they don’t know other non-lethal options out there to keep them safe.  The more people who share this, the more people we can keep out of harms way!

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, Overcome!

There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links.  Some of the links may not be.  My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family.  You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.