The trip back to the car from shopping, work, or just about anywhere that you have to go these days can be a really scary one. There are so many different situations these days that seem to be threatening at first glance that might make you afraid to walk near or past them.
Two or three young men huddled standing either by your car on between you and your car can activate your fright warning signals immediately! It doesn’t matter whether they look like a church mission group or Freddie Kruger’s family reunion, the hair on your arms has just jumped straight up and your knees get weak. You begin to focus directly on them and have now stop looking at anything else, Heaven forbid there is a car coming down the parking lot because at this moment you and that group are the only people on the face of the planet!
That is the moment you have to make a decision. Am I going to walk past them or am I going to go over two aisles and pass by them then cut back through the cars to my car? Because I know if I try to walk by them and one of them just sneezes I am going to break out in a full run to my car and probably lose my keys under the car trying to get them out while trying to hide from the view of everyone now laughing uncontrollably at the lady with the bag of items over her head scrambling across the parking lot digging in her purse.
Why do we do that? Why are we so prone to be afraid in public? Why do we see criminals everywhere we look even though there is no actual crime taking place? I like to blame the news. Every night they show me the worst of life events for the day. I have to be aware of my surroundings, they always told me that, to be safe you must be aware of your surroundings! But what happens when I am aware of my surroundings and I am aware that I am under assault and momentarily I will become a news story?
Then it happened. I realized that I need to prepare myself in case one those situations come upon me. Could it be that one of the reasons that we get so afraid of things around us is that we have not made plans for these bad things?
As I began to look into some ideas to ready myself to fend off an attacker I realized that a firearm would not be right for me. I believe that I couldn’t knowingly kill someone, at least I don’t know if I could, so it’s probably best for me if I don’t. I don’t think I want to walk around with a baseball bat. That might look as though I wanted to find a fight, and the Lord knows that is the farthest thing from my mind.
I decided I wanted something smaller that could fit in my hand and not be noticeable as I walked to my car. There are various small stun guns that are appealing and deliver an electric shock in the Millions of volts. That will put a man on the ground for sure. Then I ran across the pepper sprays that are connected to key chains. That was it! They come in many colors but the black is the one that I chose, thinking at night it would be less noticeable. They even have a quick release from your keys so that you can free it to do battle if needed. These spray a stream 6 to 8 feet and you have enough for multiple shots as needed. This has given me a sense of preparedness when I am out. I don’t feel invincible, but now I do feel like I can respond if one of these events ever come my way, and that is worth its weight in gold.