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Yesterday, on the news, they showed video of a woman being attacked by a guy in a store, who suddenly pulled out a can of pepper spray and sprayed it into her face. She turned and ran, but he came after her and sexually assaulted her.
Made me think: What’s the best thing to do if attacked in this manner? Of course, if you see the threat early and are close enough, you could grab the attacker’s hand, redirect and counter. But what if he’s further away and the spray hits you before you have a chance to react? Would you move forward, even if temporarily blinded, and try to redirect the guys arm and counter? Put up your arm in front of your face to prevent the spray from hitting you, then move towards him? Turning and running may work, however in this case the exit was behind the attacker and when the victim turned and ran toward the back of the store, it allowed the attacker to corner her.
So, how would you defend against a pepper spray attack?
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GiantkillerRe: Pepper spray defense
In the Army (sorry… yes, another Army story), you are forced to go through something called the gas chamber. It’s a big dark room that they fill with CS (tear gas). You go in with a protective mask on and stand in line. The Drill Sergeant tells every soldier one by one to take off their mask and recite their name, rank, and social security number before they are told to WALK to the back door and imediately take a left hand turn…. I was smart about it, kept my cool, sucked up the pain, answered the questions, walked towards the door and took an immedate left to the water point. The people who paniced had to stay in there with their mask off until they answered the question. They would then run through the back door with their eyes closed and BAM!!!! There is a big tree right in front of the door… Thus the reason for the left hand turn ;).
You are still able to react with a face full of pepper spray, so do so. Most people aren’t expecting a fight out of someone that just got sprayed, so you might even want to look at it as an advantage. Speed, aggression, and violence of action.
J-
Re: Pepper spray defense
quote downforlife76:In the Army (sorry… yes, another Army story), you are forced to go through something called the gas chamber. It’s a big dark room that they fill with CS (tear gas). You go in with a protective mask on and stand in line. The Drill Sergeant tells every soldier one by one to take off their mask and recite their name, rank, and social security number before they are told to WALK to the back door and imediately take a left hand turn…. I was smart about it, kept my cool, sucked up the pain, answered the questions, walked towards the door and took an immedate left to the water point. The people who paniced had to stay in there with their mask off until they answered the question. They would then run through the back door with their eyes closed and BAM!!!! There is a big tree right in front of the door… Thus the reason for the left hand turn ;).You are still able to react with a face full of pepper spray, so do so. Most people aren’t expecting a fight out of someone that just got sprayed, so you might even want to look at it as an advantage. Speed, aggression, and violence of action.
J-
We had two people that intentionally stayed in as long as possible as sort of a dare between each other. Range control finally kicked them out after 15 minutes. I exited calmly when allowed. It burns, but it was the people who panicked who fared the worse. Also, i don’t think the gas chamber is equivalent to what you’d experience from pepper spray. Might not be comparing apples to apples here.
Was this at Ft Benning?
Re: Pepper spray defense
quote vwr32:We had two people that intentionally stayed in as long as possible as sort of a dare between each other. Range control finally kicked them out after 15 minutes. I exited calmly when allowed. It burns, but it was the people who panicked who fared the worse. Also, i don’t think the gas chamber is equivalent to what you’d experience from pepper spray. Might not be comparing apples to apples here.Was this at Ft Benning?
Yup… Lovely Sand Hill. I also did a re-training at Ft Drum in a large metal shed. You can imagine all the noise when people ran straight into the wall!
You’re right… CS can’t completely be compared to pepper spray, but it’s the same sort of sensation. I’ve been pepper sprayed a lot (I used to be a little too left wing back in the day) and the same thing applied. As long as you reslove to stay calm, you’re good.
J-
Re: Pepper spray defense
Damn you Down. Bringing back the fond memories of the gas chamber. 🙂 If you go in enough you can build a very high tolerance to CS..and its great for getting rid of head colds.
I would think that turning and attempting to run turns control over to the attacker. Maybe react as if you were fighting in the dark and go after them if you can and react as Down mentioned?
It is a good question..
Re: Pepper spray defense
quote downforlife76:Yup… Lovely Sand Hill.
J-The tree sounded familiar. thumbsup
Re: Pepper spray defense
Being hit with pepper spray (especially the good stuff) is NOTHING like the gas chamber. It is a whole new level of ouch. At the Police Academy, we require the recruits to take a burst to the face and fight through it. This is really an exercise in confidence building rather than a tactical drill, as I don’t believe that they could hit anything with their drawn guns after about 3-4 seconds (the time it takes your system to register the pain). That being said, you do have that very brief initial time period to mount an overwhelming attack and try to get as much spray off of your body and on to the attackers as possible. I have seen two recruits and one tweaker shrug off the effects, but the rest usually are out of commission for a good 30-45 minutes. It also works well on dogs and telephone receivers. (or so I’ve heard….):OhMy:
Re: Pepper spray defense
Telephone receivers?? rofl2
If you’ve got 3-4 seconds before feeling the pain, that should give you at least some time to get close and try to hit the guy, maybe you’d even be able to redirect the spray at him. Or smear some off of your face and smash it into his, at least then you’d both be feeling the pain.
Maybe it’s another fun thing to add to an NTC drill. We walk through the patio, do some defenses, suddenly some guy sprays us with pepper spray and we’ll have to try to fight through it. Could be interesting. thumbsup
I think I’ve seen that gas chamber drill on a History Channel show or something. Looked brutal (some guys had to throw up). I can see how panicking would be worse. You’d be breathing harder and thus get more of the stuff into your system.
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GiantkillerRe: Pepper spray defense
Oh, and if you are wearing contact lenses, could that protect your eyes a bit, or make things worse (in case some of the spray gets trapped behind the lens)?
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GiantkillerRe: Pepper spray defense
I have to side with Jeremy on this one. Having personally gone through Military Security training I was required to be pepper sprayed in order to use it and the Gas Chamber is nothing even close to it.
You can fight through it but even if you are able to redirect the spray you can still get residual effects which can be just as bad as being sprayed with it depending on how far off it was redirected.
You can fight through it but it is one of the most difficult things I have ever encountered.
Having contacts lenses would not do anything for your eyes I’m afraid. If anything i would think it would make matters worse. You don’t even have to get sprayed directly in the eyes with it, as I wasn’t when I got exposed to it.
The key things you have to remember about pepper spray are that it instantly causes your eyes to close and it takes a lot will power and work just to get them to stay open.
Your eyes water severely and your nostrils open up the flood gates causing mucus to run out of your nose. Also breathing becomes difficult.Oh and one other thing, water does no good. The only thing that helps you to get over it is time.
I hope I’m not scaring anyone all i can say is do some research and find from others who may have been exposed to it and what they might possibly do if they were in the womans place.
Maybe you will get luck and be one of the low percentage of the population that isn’t affected by Pepper Spray. We had two people in my class out of 30 who were completely immune to the effects, boy was I jealous.
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I wonder how this compares to pepper spray, but in my country the swimming pools are very heavily chlorinated or something, and I didn’t know this. I went swimming in the pool for like half an hour, everything was fine. But once I got out, the contact of the air with the chemicals caused torturous pain!!
I couldn’t open my eyes for more than a millisecond and they were watering and burning like crazy. I tried to wash them out with water but that didn’t help at all either (even maybe made it worse).
For more than half an hour I was in terrible pain and unable to open my eyes. Is that similar to the pepper spray? I know pepper spray also affects your lungs and stuff, but I guess the eye reaction is similar.
By the way the Israeli army gives pepper spray as standard kit to female recruits! I just learnt that last week. The guys get a “personal bandage” instead haha.
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I went through both in about a weeks time.
The pepper spray is dependent upon manufacturer (as Jeremy stated).
The two pepper sprays were from different companies and both were for LE. We did Pepper spray on monday and had 2 guys run, full speed, towards concrete walls. :OhMy:On wednesday the CS canister rolled to my feet. I felt loved.We had to take off our masks and give our information, then run into the opposing side of that same wall or to the door just to the right of the wall.
On friday we enjoyed another flavor of pepper spray and it was highly more effective than the rest. It induced all sorts of bodily evacuations from people and running into nonmoving objects.
In most of these exercises I was first to be sprayed, I was assisting the chief instructor and made a really good test subject “sucker”. Luckily I was not very affected and was able to keep an eye and help the others when they were done. Plus I let everyone clean up their own mess as a bonus for all of the laughter at me. The pepper spray burned and will clear and cold, sinus, flu conditions for weeks.
I think these should experienced by anyone who wants to use them for self defense. This way they can understand how effective or ineffective their choice is.
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Heh… Maybe I never got a good blast from some really nasty pepper spray. With me, it made my eyes close after a few seconds (like you guys are talking about), but I wasn’t incapacitated and I definately could have gotten a few swings in. I do see your point, though.
J-
Re: Pepper spray defense
quote downforlife76:Heh… Maybe I never got a good blast from some really nasty pepper spray. With me, it made my eyes close after a few seconds (like you guys are talking about), but I wasn’t incapacitated and I definately could have gotten a few swings in. I do see your point, though.J-
Yeah we had to get sprayed with it then run through the gauntlet so to speak by hitting bags held by different people over about a 100 yard square area, then fight off the man in the red padded suit with a baton force him on his stomach so we could cuff him.
it was fun doing this while you are constantly being yelled at to open your eyes and keep moving.
Point is it’s a lot of mind over matter and if you keep putting up resistance it gradually becomes easier but it ain’t no walk in the park thats for sure.
Can’t speak on different brands of pepper spray but I can tell you the concentration we had wasn’t particularly strong but it sure as heck was potent.
In hindsight I now own a small can of “Pepper Gel” 10%. Nasty looking stuff to say the least.
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