When it comes to keeping yourself safe there is a sea of choices out there. The question is why most people choose not to do it. Let’s be honest the world today is not the safe place we like to imagine it. With crimes on people and property rising at an alarming rate there is no reason not to make an effort to keep yourself safe. Crime is present in ever last community in the United States and it doesn’t discriminate by age, race, or gender.

This does not imply that everyone needs to build their own bunker and prepare for the Apocalypse. It means everyone should think ahead and take a few simple steps to ensure the safety of yourself. This doesn’t require anything drastic like taking martial arts classes or an expensive security system. It can be as easy as carrying a bottle of pepper spray or making sure you lock your doors.

The fact is, most people don’t protect themselves due to not knowing enough about the subject. The reason for this stems from a preexisting mindset that most believe. This comes back to the majority of people thinking it involves wasting hours of your life taking self defense classes or getting yourself a very costly security system. Well the world needs to know this could not be further from the truth. In fact most things you can do are very simple and require little effort.

Let’s start with keeping yourself safe. This is easiest out of the majority of types of safety. Honestly, there is very large amount of different products and techniques for keeping yourself safe. Some of the most common are to use self defense weapons. These include items such as pepper spray and stun guns. These are the ones that are most commonly referred to.

Let’s start with pepper spray. This is the most effective and least problematic out of most self defense products. Pepper spray comes in many shapes and sizes that all carry a powerful punch. The main ingredient is Oleoresins Capsicum which is more commonly referred to as red pepper. A short 1-3 second burst will bring almost anyone to their knees. The best part is this incredible stopping power can be used at a range of up to 10 feet. There is no question why pepper spray is the number one choice for college students and women. All that power on top of being super easy to find and purchase makes pepper spray a tuff contender in the world of self defense products.

Another heavy weight contender is a stun gun. These bad boys mean business and any criminal caught on the wrong end of one of these will not last long. Most stun guns deliver a low amperage high voltage shock that completely disorientates the nervous system. The units can range from 20k volts all the way up to 1 million volts. They are inexpensive to buy and come in many shapes and sizes.

Most people believe they are extremely dangerous and pose a risk to anyone they are used on. This is just a myth. They are not 100% safe , but hey neither is your dinner fork. Most police officers carry stun guns and most law enforcement agencies require all officers that carry them to experience them. This is on top of the hundreds of criminals that meet the business end of stun guns every year. The reported injuries by stuns guns is very low, making them a safe means of protecting yourself.

These are just two of the many ways to keep yourself safe. In the coming weeks we will reveal other ways to keep your family, your home, and yourself safe. Remember the world is not always as safe as we wish but everyone can keep the cards in their favor.

Pepper spray is one of the most common and one of the most effective of all the self defense products out there.  A short burst of the powerful chemical can cause temporary blindness, choking, coughing and nausea.  These effects make it virtually impossible for a criminal to stay aggressive.  This is the exact reason why pepper spray is the most popular choice from college students and women. 

Anyone that owns pepper spray knows the peace of mind that it can bring you.  However, there are a huge number of people out there that choose not to own it because they either think it is too harsh or think they do not need it where they live.  This could not be further from the truth. 

Pepper spray may be harsh but that is exactly why it is made for aggressive assailant.  In its chemical structure, pepper spray is almost all natural.   The active ingredient is oleoresin capsicum which is extracted from chili peppers.  Yes, the type of chili peppers you find in Mexican food.  Now that doesn’t sound so bad does it?  It is usually highly purified to remove any other chemicals that can be harmful to you or your attacker.

It doesn’t matter where you live there is always the risk of being a victim of a crime.  Every single state has report of robbery, mugging, and other violent crimes every year.  I’m not a doom and gloom type of guy but it is just the truth.  Crime is a fact of life that each and everyone live with everyday.  You hear about it in the news, in the paper, or even at the local store.  Most of these crimes are classified as violent crimes committed on individuals. 

Everyone out there needs some sort of protection and pepper spray is defiantly a far cry from carrying a gun.  The great thing about it is the many different shapes and sizes it comes in.  They range all the way from a half ounce keychain bottles all the way to one pound bottles.  It doesn’t matter your need for it there is a solution out there for you. 

Hello again…I wanted to tell you a little story about something that happened today.

I was eating lunch at the house enjoy this beautiful spring day. It was a good 55 degrees and sunny outside. Mind you I live in Maine so 55 degrees is pretty much a heat wave after the winter we just endured.

While I’m enjoying my sandwich my phone rings. I’m take a look at the caller ID and it’s my girlfriend’s mother. She never really calls me a whole lot so this was a little on the unexpected side. So I answer the phone and she is hysterically crying and thanking me over and over. She didn’t say what for but she kept thanking me.

Keep in mind her and I do not talk too much, so this was more confusing than anything.

So when she finally calmed down I was able to ask her what this was all about. She proceeded to tell me that Samantha’s (my girlfriend) 18 year old sister was almost kidnapped that morning. Obviously I didn’t see that coming and needless to say, it was a little shocking.

At this point I was pretty disturbed by hearing this but I had no idea why she was calling me about it.

She finally asked me if I knew why she was “almost kidnapped” and not actually kidnapped. I had no idea and they only thing that came to mind was the she is a pretty tuff girl. Well, that was the incorrect answer.

Come to find out, her sister had a bottle of keychain pepper spray that I had given her last Christmas. Her attacker had tried to pull her into the car and she managed to get him in the face with the pepper spray. This bought her enough time to escape and alert campus security.

I was completely blown off my feet after she told me all of this. First off I live in Maine and stuff that like that almost NEVER happens. Secondly my girlfriend’s mother was thanking me for something…Both of which very rarely happen.

This really struck home with me. I promote self defense products for a living but I don’t usually get to hear first hand stories of how they help. Not only did I have the reassurance that what I do actually helps people but it also potentially saved the life of someone I know very well.

This goes to show that even if you live in area that may seem sheltered, there is always the risk of something happening. Like I mentioned I live in Maine and our crime rate in the state is pretty low and where I live there is almost no random person on person crimes.

Samantha’s sister is not a self defense expert at all and that is the story with most people out there. This is something I really want to get through to everyone. Most people think self defense involves long classes and physical work but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

All it takes is something as small and unimportant like a little bottle of pepper spray to save a life.
I’m sure anyone out there that has a daughter, a sister, or even a niece knows how important it is to keep them safe…especially if you live in an area that isn’t as out of the way as Maine is.

I’m sure any parent would gladly trade ten dolors’ to save a child’s life.

Until next time,

Barry

Here’s the video I promised in my post from yesterday. You’ll have to forgive me for the quality of the video I’m still trying to master this online video thing…haha. Darn technology. You can see a better copy here if you prefer.

There are a lot of different ways to protect your home and keep you and your family safe. Obviously it would be pretty difficult to protect your home with an onion but bare with me I’ll make some sense of this for you.

When it comes to making sure you have a safe home it is not enough to have a few extra locks on the door or an attack dog named fluffy. When most people try to protect their home they tend to think they will be just fine by installing an alarm system. In some cases that would be enough but in most it is not sufficient.

What if a brazen thief decides to do a “smash and grab”? They can be in and out of your house pretty quickly. In that short amount of time your house can be trashed and your valuables taken. Worst yet if you live in an area that has more crime the police are probably a little busy. That only increases the time it would take them to respond to an alarm at your home.

This is exactly why you want to design your home security as cleverly as possible. The goal is to make your home both unappealing for anyone that may target you or down right frustrating for anyone that would attempt to break in.

The best way to manage this is by using a technique that is very popular among the home security experts out there. This is called the “Onion Technique”. The idea is build each part of your home security off another part to form layers of defense. It is very straight forward and obvious but you would be amazed by the amount of people that would never think to do it.

Most of the time anyone can do this with little to no money involved.

A great example of this would be planting sharp rose bushes in front of your windows. Then, on the windows use a window stop to firmly hold them in place. Then, on the inside of the window you can have a motion detector or a window alarm.

If someone tires to enter your home threw the window they may change they’re mind when they realized they have to climb threw a very sharp plant. If they still want to try and get in, it is going to be difficult for them to get threw the rose bush. If that sneaky criminal gets threw the rose bush they will be stunned to find they cannot open the window because of the window stop. For the average thief they would probably give up on that entrance or even your home. If this criminal is a savvy he might be able to get by the window stop. If that happens that’s why you have have the window alarm to give them a nice loud surprise when they get inside.

The whole goal of doing this is to make it hard for someone to break into your home because they run into one problem after another. A lot of burglars want to break in quickly and unnoticed. If someone is outside your house climbing threw a bush and then messing around with a window the chances are someone will probably notice. By creating difficult layers it will increase the time someone spends trying to get in and will greatly increase their chances of being notices by someone.

I’ll go ahead and give you another example of this method:

A very common place for a burglar to break in is thew the back door. This is normally done because there is usually tree cover and people on the main road cannot see the back door. With this cover a burglar can simply break the window on the back door and let themselves in.

Most people have a regular dead bolt on the back door which can simply be opened once the window is break. To avoid this, use a double-key deadbolt. These require a key to open from the inside as well as the outside. This makes it impossible to unlock the door once the window is broken. If the burglar is able to pick the lock you want them to run into the next layer. In this case you would use either a floor lock or a door alarm to stop them in their tracks. From there you can use a motion detector to add another layer to the system.

Chances are most criminals will just give up if they have several unsuccessful attempts to break in.

As you can see it is much more effective to take the time to have different layers to your home security rather than just having one and hoping it works. The examples I have here are simples ones and there are many many more out there that you can use. If you use your imagination the sky is the limit for making your home as safe as possible.

Keep your eyes open for my next post. I’m finishing up a video right now with a whole bunch more examples of layering and goes more in depth on the onion technique. Also feel free to check out my home security and self defense site. There is more info on protecting your home as well as yourself.

Until Next Time,

Barry