I can tell you about an experience I had a few years ago while I was working for a security agency. During that time I was in pretty good physical condition. Let me tell you that it does not matter what physical condition you are in for pepper spray to do its job. Many of the people who were going through the security classes I went through were not in good shape. This security class was sponsored by our local police department and all people working in security were recommended to attend. The primary purpose was to get ?pepper sprayed? and everyone did. The policeman that sprayed me hit me right between the eyes and then moved it back and forth very quickly. He had to be quick, because as soon as the spray hit me I started to double over in pain. My eyes closed and started to swell up and believe me, it was a while before I could open them again. Several other things happened to me at the same time. One was that my knees buckled and I fell to the ground. My nose was running continously and the spray went into my mouth, so it was burning and I was coughing a lot. We were told to flush our eyes quickly in cold water which we did as soon as we could see where to do this. Needless to say, we had to have help finding the water sprayer. None of us could see well for about half an hour after being sprayed. Even after getting all the pepper spray off through flushing our eyes and taking a shower, it still took a day for the minor burning sensation to go away. Let me tell you, it is not an experience that I would voluntarily go through again. I did learn that pepper spray will act quickly and a person must be able to spray quickly in order for it to be really effective. Practicing placement in the hand with the button in the right place will certainly help you. You must have the spray in a location where you can get to it quickly and be willing to use it quickly. Practice taking aim and test your spray once in a while according to the manufactures recommendations. By all means talk to an expert about using pepper spray. Contact your local police department and go through their mini course so you will know what pepper spray will do. I did and am certainly glad I did. I know now that pepper spray does work as advertised. |
