One of the many reasons that I moved to Maine back in the 1970s was because I just did not feel safe living in Northern Virginia anymore. Within a short period of time I was exposed to two different rape attempts (on me) and it scared me pretty badly. I was lucky to have been able to bluff my way out of the first attempt by threatening to hit the would-be rapist with a large bottle that I was carrying at the time. Then I responded after that to the first rape attempt by taking karate classes for self protection. I responded to the second rape attempt threatening to beat up the attacker using my karate skills, and that frightened him off. Then I went out and bought a dog.
But I still didn’t feel safe, and I did not want to buy a gun. I had heard so many horror stories about how young children have been killed by guns left carelessly around the house, and more stories about how sometimes an intruder could find the gun and then use it against the inhabitants, and then even more stories about how a burglar might overtake the victim before the victim can shoot and then use the gun against the victim. All in all, I didn’t feel that guns were the best choice for me. As the neighborhood I lived in became less desirable I felt less safe and moved to Maine to get away from the feelings of vulnerability that I was having living in Northern Virginia.
But that was many years ago, before great things were developed to help people defend themselves without being lethal. If I were going to buy myself a self-defense product right now, I think that I’d buy some mace or a M18L taser gun, or maybe both!