All of us have a self defense mechanism built into us that wants us to be safe.
This mechanism, sometimes called self preservation, is a natural response to danger or the possibility of danger.
Our creator has provided us with this defense device so we can survive in this world.
We have all had situations in our life, men and women, were we felt insecure or in danger.
Many of us have these feelings everyday because of our job.
For instance, a real estate agent sitting on a house waiting for a person or persons to come by and look at the house.
Case in point: "A 50 year old man, could spend life in prison for the alleged assault.
The woman, now 25, was showing him a home in Weldon Spring last year when she said he attacked her.
She said he had handcuffed her to a pole in the basement of the home, and assaulted her at gunpoint.
Prosecutors said he had posed as a potential home buyer.
" KSDK, St Louis What if you're an account executive who works into the evening that must exit the building late at night into a dark parking lot with nobody around? The potential situations are numberless, and we have all had the premonition of danger at sometime or another.
No matter what the case maybe, we all have the right to protect ourselves using whatever means we have available.
This includes a firearm if one is proficient with it and has the required permits that make it legal to do so.
Many of us don't want to carry a firearm or use deadly force, or cannot because of city or state regulation.
Maybe you have had a bad experience in the past and don't want to kill a person and send him back to his maker, to stand trial, and that is fine.
Today so many are looking for a means to protect themselves without using deadly force.
Luckily due to the technological advancement we now have a way of doing just that.
Available to us now are pepper spray or OC spray that will do a nice job of repelling an attacker and giving time for the potential victim to get away.
We also have stun guns that convert the blood sugar in the attacker's muscles to lactic acid, depleting him of the element necessary to command his muscles to work.
All of these are non lethal.
As with any new technology comes the possibility of abuse.
Some people have acquired these self defense devices and used them in a way they were not intended.
Today we have laws written in some states to regulate the use of these personal protection items or eliminate them all together.
Indiana, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Illinois have all written laws to restrict the use of stun guns in their state.
Pepper Spray is restricted in New York, Wisconsin, Michigan and Massachusetts.
We have other states that are considering the same action, including my own state of Arizona.
Let me raise a point here.
Alcohol is currently being abused by many.
Why don't we restrict it? How about obesity look at all the health problems surrounding that, should we restrict food?! Of course not that would be preposterous, and so it is with self defense devices.
We cannot allow the actions of a few careless individuals to dictate what we can use to promote our safety.
I encourage you to write your congressman today and let them know your feelings on this.