Personal Mace Products Designed to Keep you Safe

Personal mace is one of a number of popular non-lethal; self defense weapons available today, that are designed for people to use to defend themselves in the event of being attacked or assaulted. Akin to pepper spray, it is available in a range of different forms including small canisters and guns.

Other non-lethal personal self defense devices include a number of different personal safety alarms and a variety of stun guns. Pepper spray and personal mace are made in a variety of formulations that you aim and shoot at an attacker or assailant, preferably straight into the face so that they are forced to close their eyes. Any type of self defense spray will cause intense pain and stinging of the eyes, combined with shortness of breath that leads to coughing and spluttering. This usually makes it easy to overcome a would-be-attacker, if you have the capacity to do so. Alternatively it provides the opportunity for you to escape. More on personal safety training

A stun gun (even a small stun gun) on the other hand is an electrical device that you trigger in order to deliver an electric shock to an attacker. This is designed, quite literally, to stun a person so that they cannot use their muscles, again giving you the chance to either overpower whoever is assaulting or mugging you, or make a fast get-away.

Most other personal attack alarms are designed to make a lot of noise – rather like any security system installed in the home. You keep the device with you all the time you need protection, and if something happens, you trigger the device, usually by pulling a pin. The high-pitched alarm is likely to scare most attackers, thus buying you time. The noise will also alert other people who hopefully will come to your assistance. Personal mace devices are sometimes incorporated with other types of personal alarm so that you have a two-fold counter attack.

Many people use the terms mace and pepper spray interchangeably, although technically mace products were originally developed using types of tear gas and other chemicals. Traditionally mace (tear gas) was used by law enforcement officers as long ago as the 1960s, for example to control riots. But the bad effects of the original formulations led to a change in approach. In those early days it wasn’t quite as non-lethal as they thought!

The primary producer of mace products historically, Mace Security International still uses some tear gas (although not the original type) in its products. For example, one of the company’s current best sellers is a triple action device that contains:

1. Oleoresin Capsicum (OC), the active ingredient in all pepper spray, to force the eyes shut and induce choking,
2. tear gas, to cause copious tearing and disorientation, and
3. a special ultra-violet (UV) dye that marks an assailant without he or she realizing it, and which is a great aid when it comes to later identification.

Mace spray in its original form is illegal in most Western countries today. However personal mace, with or without the addition of tear gas, is widely available. More on self defense weapons