Is pepper spray and mace a thing of the past?
I have been fortunate to have attended plenty of tactical conferences over the last year and it came up several times during training sessions that there is a move away from using mace like Sabre Defense products and towards using tasers. Tasers don’t have the blow back that mace has and of all of the times I have every trained with pepper spray or mace, my lips and eyes always got a little bit of it. It’s still a very good thing to have on you if you want a less lethal and lower legal liability to use in a bad situation. If I could name all of the times I have ever felt uneasy dealing with someone or was in a hostile situation, it was almost in or around a place serving alcohol.
Now that there is a lawyer hiding under every rock, if you choose to carry a firearm for self defense you better be prepared to deal with the legal consequences of every action. Streamlight flashlights are even being sold as defensive weapons for the strobe feature or the striking bezel. Until tasers become smaller and more compact, I find them to be a little too impractical to carry, but the time will come. One of my favorites to this day is the Kimber Guardian II which looks and feels more like a gun but lasts much longer than bottles pepper sprays. They are going to cost you more, but they are worth it.