There are literally thousands of websites in the United States which sell pepper sprays. Most of them are owned by individual independent distributors who also sell other self-defense items such as stun guns personal alarms and other products for home security. Most of what they tell you on their websites is marketing, information that is geared to make you buy the product.
Pepper sprays, also known as defensive sprays, are the most widely used nonlethal self-defense product in the world. Here’s why! They are legal just about everywhere, are inexpensive, small enough to carry in your pocket or on a keychain and are close to 90% effective. What is not to like about these qualities?
Each one of those websites offers a multitude of products from many different manufacturers who make dozens of products each. All pepper sprays do pretty much the same thing. In essence, it can disable an assailant for as long as 45 minutes by causing excessive tearing of the eyes, extreme pain and making breathing very difficult.
For a broader explanation of what they can do, take a look at our article on everything you need to know about pepper spray.
With so many choices available to you how do you know which one to get? When you go looking for a good pepper spray here are some of the characteristics that you should consider.
- And perhaps, at least in our opinion, the most important consideration is the true measure of hotness of any pepper spray-the percentage of major capsaicinoids. Most pepper sprays contain only a .18% concentration, some are as high as 1.33%. The higher the percentage of major capsaicinoids, the more potent the spray. Check out our Pepper Spray.
- Some manufacturers include other components in their pepper spray to make it more effective. Examples are a CS tear gas component and an ultraviolet invisible marking dye that is useful in identifying assailants after an attack. Some manufacturers even color the UV marking dye for an added “embarrassment” factor.
Those are ten factors you should take into consideration when shopping for a pepper spray. Remember that most of what you read in packaging and on websites is promotional material-marketing geared to get you to buy! Take an objective look and consider these ten factors.
Frequently Asked Questions
They sell pepper spray at some sporting goods stores, in-person retailers or online retailers like The Home Security Superstore with some restrictions. Massachusetts and New York only allow pepper spray to be bought in state while Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Texas all have size restrictions.