Pepper Sprayed, what to do?

[PRSOrator]

A friend of mine was maced last night leaving her home. It was around 10 PM and she walked out of her front door of her apartment onto the street, to give you an idea the streets have trees that hang over the sidewalk infront of the homes, and the homes are row homes. It's an urban setting but not densely populated and crime is focused in certain areas (not hers). The walk to her car was about 20 feet from her door, as soon as she stepped off the stoop a man jumped out (assuming from behind a car, I am not sure from where) and maced her in the face, blinding and incapacitating her and took her purse and ran.

She is okay, eyes are still in pain, and short a purse, some cash, etc. She does not carry anything for self defense.

I starting to think about this situation, if I were in her place, I do not know how much protection my glasses would provide me from mace but lets say I receive the full effect and am blinded, stunned, etc. Chances are I wouldn't reach for my gun on the chance that this attacker has the advantage on me, I have no line of sight in which to fire (because I am blind), and the attacker can overwhelm me and take my gun, using it against me or even just taking that and putting another gun on the street. The other part of me wouldn't want to be at the mercy of the attacker and feeling helpless, and I feel as though I would reach for my knife and try and be prepared to defend myself if he makes physical contact with me.

What do you guys think? Would you draw? Reach for your knife? Or simply just be at the mercy of the attacker?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[BigRAM]

i would try to regain vision asap while also listen to see if the bg comeing towards me or away. if coming towards i would wait until he touches him then try to kick him or her in crouch area. but i would not pull out a gun or knife to hve them use it against me.

[guardmt]

Well In my dumberrr days my friends and I had a mace war and it turned out that I have a tolerence against it, so out of all the dumb stuff I learned that there was a good thing. But in your friends shoes I would have simply not put up any struggle and try to go back the way i came

[Hkchris]

Carry a blade in your hand and slice anything within range.

[guardmt]

Carry a blade in your hand and slice anything within range.

Until you accidently slice a bystander coming up to help you.

[Harryball]

Until you accidently slice a bystander coming up to help you.

Exactly...Let get real. If you have a tolerance for it, then do what you need to, if you dont, try to regain as much composer as you can to get out of the situation....

[Coastie 585]

Police cadets get pepper sprayed in the academy to teach them two things.

- They can fight THROUGH the pain.
- So can anybody they spray.

When getting certified I was pepper sprayed, I then had to fight off a guy in a redman suit, while of course protecting my weapon. I then had to draw down on him, order him to the ground and handcuff him.

Just because you are pepper sprayed does not mean the fight is over. Does the stuff hurt? Hell yeah it does, but it doesn't really become incompacitating until you have nothing to keep you busy, i.e. after you handcuff the BG. Once you are mission complete it really, erally kicks in.

[Retiredonce]

Coastie got there before I did. What he said...lol

[PRSOrator]

Police cadets get pepper sprayed in the academy to teach them two things.

- They can fight THROUGH the pain.
- So can anybody they spray.

When getting certified I was pepper sprayed, I then had to fight off a guy in a redman suit, while of course protecting my weapon. I then had to draw down on him, order him to the ground and handcuff him.

Just because you are pepper sprayed does not mean the fight is over. Does the stuff hurt? Hell yeah it does, but it doesn't really become incompacitating until you have nothing to keep you busy, i.e. after you handcuff the BG. Once you are mission complete it really, erally kicks in.

That's good information to have, I was under the impression that I'd be almost useless in terms of defending myself. I guess also shock may play a factor, you were anticipating the pepper spray which although doesn't make the physical burden any easier it does mentally prepare you to fight through the pain, in her situation I think the BG achieved 100% surprise which I feel would factor into the ability to make a stand.

[Hopyard]

There is a minor bright side to this story. At least he didn't do any lasting damage as might have happened if he knocked her to the ground, hit her in the head, of sliced her.

[tacman605]

Just to add to what the others have said. Most pepper sprays have a time factor between contact with the skin and onset of overwhelming symptoms sometimes up to one minute, there is not a set standard.
OC is a pain compliance tool it all depends on how much pain you can take and what version of OC it is. OC "generally" has to make contact with the skin to be effective if you wear glasses all the better they will protect your eyes from a direct blast.
If needed you can physically hold open your eye to see with to attempt to flee or fight, IF you can take the pain. The only true way to find out what you can take is to get sprayed, it is not pleasant but you will learn in two minutes what it would take you 8 hours in a classroom to digest.
Drawing a weapon of any type to fight blindly is probably not the best thing to do, kick, punch, scream do whatever but in that condition you would probably be disarmed.
Just a suggestion several companies make mini wipes or pump spray bottles of neutralizer for OC might not help before of during but can get you back in the normal realm after.

[OldVet]

Short of being a superman, once mace hits you in the eyes, it takes the fight out of you and you'd lost any advantages you might have had. BG's already got the element of surprise on you or he wouldn't have sprayed you. Do people thing he's gonna stand back and wait while you--blindly--draw a knife or gun? It's hit and run.

Make noise, LOTS of it. BGs generally hate drawing attention in muggings like this. Make noise and protect yourself as best you can. There's no one right answer.

[ctsketch]

I have a high tolerance for pain but I have yet to be pepper sprayed so I have no idea how i'd react. I wouldn't draw for the reasons stated above but if the attacker was near enough to me or made contact with me I would fight him. I've done many drills/sparring sessions where we had to fight without the use of our visions. I had to learn how to fight and do technique just by the feel of the body.

[Knightrider]

I wear glasses so even if I don't get all of the spray, I would still be blind since the OC would be all on my glasses. The best I would do is take off my glasses and handle it for there. I'm not bind when I take off my glasses so I should be fine if I have to start to shoot.

[nedrgr21]

When attacked, attack your attacker.

Charge him, grab him, draw and shoot - you don't know what's coming and can certainly expect the worst, especially if you're a female.