Capsicum Spray

[brian]

I'll keep my eye on this topic - as someone with three growing daughters, it's definitely something I'm interested in to help make them feel safer and be more protected.

[Belson17]

In the US, I'm pretty sure it's legal.

[OneofaKind]

Originally Posted by Belson17

In the US, I'm pretty sure it's legal.

Ah, but guns are legal in the States, but not the UK

[Belson17]

In the US, whether it's legal goes by state law and I'm pretty sure it's legal to carry it here in NY.

[vicki2]

I've still not found out about legalities in the U.K, but you can certainly buy it online from U.K. companies I've found out. Doesn't make it legal though lol.

[Belson17]

In the US, to own a gun, you need a permit. I don't think you need for one for mace or pepper spray. But maybe it varies by locality. Once at the airport, when my wife went through security, she forgot she had mace, and they confiscated it, but they didn't arrest her or even imply that it was illegal.

[TimH]

Hi everyone, I may be swinging the lamp ( going back a bit to my days as a cop) but I think you will find it is not legal to carry anything like mace pepper spray etc in the UK. Not supporting the view just passing it on. There have been many attempts to introduce things as defence but the law in the UK doesn't make the distinction between the good guys and the bad guys.

[OneofaKind]

If you really want to know whether or not it's legal in the UK you could check with the police or the home office.

[vicki2]

I might phone the local police and ask ...I checked the Home Office website and found nothing there. For me, it's just interesting as an ex-pat to work out these things ...sometimes, it's darned near impossible to find out!

I once asked about one set of rules regarding beaches here, and was told by the local police to read the rules at the sign on the beach. There was no sign so I phoned them back. They said the rules were at the beach. Sort of like Who's on First!

[Numenius]

It is definitely illegal to carry it.

Here is the UK embassy's comment on it's page for U.S people planning to visit the UK: "It is illegal to both bring pepper spray into the United Kingdom and to possess it. Individuals who are caught carrying or using pepper spray are subject to arrest. "


The definition of an offensive weapon is that you may not carry "any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him or some other person" - which of course capsicum spray is - it has no other purpose than to cause (albeit temporary) injury. There are also numerous cases on record of alergic reactions, long term problems for people sprayed with it who had contact lenses in and so on - and in our litigation mad world, you just know they'd award your mugger damages against you! And whereas our magistrates courts go easy on criminals, they love to crucify anyone decent who in feeling the need to protect themselves demonstrates how ineffective the courts are. - They don't like that at all, - I think because whenever a member of the public has to defend themselves, it proves that the courts are not providing sufficient deterent to crime, and so they whack the member of the public! Can't have the public defending themselves! There is a also case on record of someone getting 80 hours community service for carrying "CS" - which may in fact have been pepper spray.

I think Our attitude toward self-defence weapons in the UK is also because of course they are just as effective used as weapons of offence. It is not uncommon for the easliy available mace for example to be used by muggers in the U.S and Europe unfortunately.

The problem with any weapon anyway is that if the user is not 100% confident in using it, it often just escalates the situation or gets turned on them themselves. It is easy to say you would use a thing, but a 1/1000th of a second hesitation, and the bad guy has taken it off you and is using it on you.

I think awareness and situation avoidance really is the most effective defence for people, though having a daughter myself, I know that it's difficult to get the required level into them without making them scared to lead a normal life.

Instead of pepper spray, if you really feel they need to carry something, what about this:

http://www.c-p-p.co.uk/product/asp/P...D//af/page.htm


As yet, I don't think there has been a legal challenge to it's use. It is not designed to cause injury.