Keeping Safe Without Guns and Knives

As the temperature heats up and more people venture outdoors, we often put ourselves in dangerous situations without thinking about it. That trail you like to hike on a warm spring morning or that isolated camping spot you loved last summer can be a danger zone. Just as you want to enjoy the great outdoors, so will wild animals and would-be attackers. Keeping your self safe is a simple as wearing good shoes and carrying things in your pocket. Remember three simple things: noise, blindness and pain, can save your life.

Things needed: whistle, air horn, aerosol spray, shoes

Noise

Carry and use a shrill whistle whenever you go hiking, in the city or in the county. If walking in the woods, scare wild animals with an air horn such as an aerosol fog horn purchased at boating supply stores. Stray dogs in the city can be on the attack as well. Blow your whistle, use your horn, scream, yell, swear...yes, even something as simple as a string of profanity can throw off your attacker enough so you can kick and run. Be as loud and obnoxious as you can.

Blindness

Use blindness to create a chance to get away. Spray perfume, hair spray, bug spray, sun screen, and breathe spray in the eyes of your attacker. If at home, keep a can of wasp bug killer spray handy as it can spray up to 20 feet away and sting the eyes of your attacker. We all know what products we have at home that will sting when we get it into our eyes. A small spray bottle filled with mouthwash or nail polish remover can disorient your attacker, giving you time to kick them in the shin and then run like crazy.

Pain

Stomp on their toes, kick them in the crotch, jab them in the throat, poke them in the eye or kick the shin and slide your foot down the bone on the front of the shin. Any action that can be debilitating during a football game will work as a self-defense tool. In basic training we were taught to jab, stomp and kick: jab them in the eye, stomp on their toes and kick them in the shin. It is hard to chase someone if your toe is smashed! A shoe slid down the shin may not hurt as much as a kick in the groin but it might be easier to get to during an attack.

After the Attack

Always remember, once you disable your attacker, RUN. Then contact the police. Even if you got away without injury, report the attack to the authorities.

If you scratch your attacker, the DNA under your fingernails may help find the attacker. Do not clean your nails until you report the attack to the police. If you are physically attacked, try to pull out some hair, scratch some skin, rip their clothes; whatever you take from the attacker can help find and convict them. Don't stop and check to see if they are okay, don't apologize and don't stand around waiting to see if they can get up. The goal is to disable and disorient your attacker enough so you can get away alive and find the help you need.