In this country there is a violent assault every 29 seconds. That's two per minute, 60 per hour, 1,440 day, and 525,600 per year. That's assault only. That's not assault and battery, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, sexual assault, assault on a child, and I could go on and on and on.

Today there are as many categories of crime as there are crimes. You really need an advanced degree in statistics just to read some of the BS contained in crime reports.

If you see an announcement that violent crime has dropped 9%, you better believe that some of that crime is in another category, one that didn't exist in the last report.

It's unfortunate, but many top cops are master bureaucrats, and not too good at real police work.

Let's get something straight right now.

That old adage about the police protecting you is simply not true anymore. It hasn't been true for decades, but the police would like you to believe it.

For the last few years I have been helping people protect themselves. I am not against guns or gun ownership, but I think that most self defense can be done without resorting to guns. I said most, not all.

Pepper Spray is one of the best methods of self defense, and today it comes in all shapes, and sizes.

There are a couple of primary reasons for its continuing popularity with both men and women.

It's easy to use, and it is very, very effective.

Most Pepper Spray is Oleoresin Capsicum, or OC,
which comes from good old cayenne pepper.Newer, hotter pepper sprays come from habernero pepper. The older types are 10% solutions. The newer, hotter types are 18% solutions.

The old versions are still quite effective, and believe me, you wouldn't want to get hit with one. The new ones are super hot, and have a little more range.

When you spray an assailant, or attacker, he will first experience shortness of breath, and then get temporary blindness from excessive tearing. The assailant will do a lot of wheezing and hacking, and when he's not doing that, he'll be screaming in pain. He will feel like he is right next to the sun and melting.

The effects are only temporary, and there is no permanent damage, except that the mook will have a lifelong fear of getting sprayed again.

One burst of pepper spray will usually stop a 250 pound man in seconds. Two sprays will flatten anybody bigger than that.

The newest innovation in pepper spray is larger containers with different grips. A new version called Wildfire has a 9 ounce pistol grip that contains enough OC to take out a pack of mooks, and then some.

Newer versions can also fire up to 18 feet, and some contain dyes that can mark an assailant for easy identification.

You can get pepperspray pens, rings, and pepperspray disguised as lipstick. There are .5 ounce sizes, 1 ounce, 1.5 ounce, 4 ounce, and the new super 9 ounce, and colossal 16 ounce. There are sprays, and foggers. They are all very, very effective.

With all different sizes you can keep one just about anywhere.

Here is what I recommend.

1) One on your keychain.
2) One on your car visor.
3) One under your car seat,or in a cup
holder.

These can be the .5 ounce to 1.5 ounce.

4) One around your front and back door

These can be 1.5 ounce to 4 ounce.

5) One in the garage

Again, 1.5 ounce to 4 ounce.

If you have a cash business, like a convenience store, restaurant, bar, or liquor store, the pistol grip 9 ounce and 16 ounce are probably your ticket.

I think everyone should carry, but especially if you are a woman, you work late at night, you work in a crime plagued area, you are in a sales or delivery position, or you live alone.

You can buy a barrel of protection for less than $75 dollars, and even with the new, much larger sizes for around $125 dollars. At $125 dollars, thats about 33 cents a day. That's less than half the cost of a small coffee. Way less if you go to Starbucks.

Don't find yourself alone, anywhere, confronted by a mook, with no protection.

Not when it's so easy to defend yourself.