Students turn to pepper spray, stun guns for protection
One week after Brianna Denison disappeared, Kimberly Ramirez bought pepper spray and a stun gun. The spray stays at home while the gun stays in her purse.
“It makes me feel safer, especially when I walk to the parking garage at night,” the 22-year-old political science major said. “I don’t really want to take any chances.”
After Denison’s Jan. 20 abduction, the culture at the University of Nevada, Reno changed. Groups of women walk together at night, instead of individually with iPods. Self-defense classes draw dozens of people. And, more contentiously, Ramirez’s 950,000-volt Firefly isn’t the only stun gun on campus and dozens of others have pepper spray.
Alysha Carpenter, whose family owns the Scotland Yard Spy Shop, said they’ve been selling out of pepper sprays since Denison’s abduction. She said they hope an order of 300 cans will last a few days.
Susan Palwick, a UNR English professor, said she worries the surge will result in someone getting a face-full of pepper spray.
“I don’t like the culture of fear and I don’t think it’s ultimately healthy in the long run,” she said.
Martial arts instructor Vince Salvatore, head of Aikido of Reno, lost his voice last week teaching enough classes to meet his demand. He yelled hoarsely at UNR on Thursday for a free self-defense class put on by the Lambda Phi Xi sorority. About three dozen people, almost all female, attended the class. Salvatore stressed awareness and confidence in his classes.
“There’s so much paranoia in the area,” he said. “It’s really about getting you out of your fear.”
Some turn to self-defense devices to ease their fear. But when does confidence become a feeling of invincibility?
Chenay Painter, a 23-year-old French and anthropology major, said buying pepper spray has been on her to-do list for a while. She said her one night class already made her buy an on-campus parking pass. The class, which lets out at 6:45 p.m. twice a week, also made her feel the need for the spray.
“I don’t know if it will make me feel better,” she said. “I guess it’s just a matter of having something, not that it would ever be handy or useful.”
Irv Miller, president of J & L Self Defense Products, said he wants everyone, male and female, to have pepper spray in their car and on their person.
“If it was up to me, I’d give every college girl a can of pepper spray,” he said.
Miller said someone touching their can pepper spray while walking through a dark parking garage will have defense on the mind. They’ll notice irregularly moving shadows and know when to go back for an escort, he said.
Miller said he advocates pepper spray so much, his company sells the stun gun-pepper spray combo Ramirez bought only so more people would have pepper spray. He said he also sells pepper spray practice “for cheap” so people will practice. A half-ounce goes for $3.50 from his Web site, selfdefenseproducts.com.
The stun gun requires an attacker an arm’s length away – “the guy would essentially have to be right on top of her,” Miller said.
But the pepper spray lets people spray and evade, he said, and at a comfortable distance.
However, Deborah Lozano, community coordinator and master patrol officer for the University of Oklahoma argues such weapons can create false security.
“I just don’t recommend pepper spray or stun guns at all because they make the girl feel invincible and that’s one of the worst things you can do,” she said. “If they buy these and go complacent because they feel safer, that can make the situation worse.”
Without proper training, the defenders could inadvertently disable themselves or even arm the attacker, she said.
Instead, Lozano recommended students take regular self-defense classes. In worst-case scenarios, students can also turn items they normally carry into weapons, without the sense of false sense of security sprays can bring.
“Keys to the eyes or up the nose, man, that’s painful,” she said.
She said aim textbooks at the bridge of the nose as well – “you just shove it as hard as you can, you want to shove it into their brain.”
Assistant News Editor Jessica Fryman contributed to this report. Photo by Daniel Clark/Nevada Sagebrush
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6 Responses to “Students turn to pepper spray, stun guns for protection”
Why is there so much paranoia? O that’s right, the university has done nothing to make the student body safer. They are hoping and praying, like all of us, that the rapist is caught. If he is caught then the university won’t have to spend thousands of dollars to make us safer. But for me, I can not put a price on my fellow students’ safety. We shouldn’t have to buy stun guns and pepper spray. The university should solve the problem; call boxes and cameras in the parking garages. If the university has done something to make us safer, let us know. There are other schools in high crime areas; they are not as paranoid as us because their university is protecting them.
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Stun guns and pepper spray are nice, but for the sorts of crime that UNR is getting all too well known for, they are largely ineffective. Disabling someone works for a quick second, but putting them down for good works better.
With all of the campus shootings, abductions, rapes, assaults and other nasty stuff that is coming down out there, go get your Concealed Carry Weapon permit (CCW)and learn how to defend yourself. There’s a difference between “disabled” and dead, and in these cases, I think I’d rather the assailant was dead.
Someone really needs to start putting the screws to Glick that safety needs to be a key concern at UNR. HEY GLICK: ALLOW CCW HOLDERS TO CARRY AT UNR! Its not a safe place to be, and you’re limiting the rights of a good many of your students to defend themselves. Are you going to assign a cop to every group of pretty girls? You don’t have the manpower for that!
Students: Get your rights, defend yourselves. Its the only option in an insane world.
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ian
i have spoken with 2nd amendment activists. if you talk to these people, they will agree with me that CCWP’s only worsens this problem. it would increase deaths if there was a shooting. also it is very difficult to get one. most on campus are unable in the state of nevada to get one purely because they are too young.
heck building a fence would increase our saftey better than having CCWP’s for students on campus.
timothy whitney
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Which “Second Amendment Activists” have you polled on this?
As of the day you turn 21 in Nevada you can get a CCW. Its not difficult provided you can pass the background and shooting exams as Nevada is a “Shall Issue” state when it comes to getting a CCW. You do not have to provide a reason to get the permit, just pass the test with your firearm, pass a written exam proving you understand and informed of the law regarding the use of deadly force, and that you can pass an FBI background investigation.
Before you go around making blanket statement for those of us who really are Second Amendment Activists, make sure you’ve actually spoken to a few who know the law and are up to date on the issues and nuances in those laws.
And the idea of a fence? Nothing like shooting fish in a barrel I suppose. Look at VT, the guy was smart enough to lock the doors in the building he was shooting people in, giving no avenue for escape. A fence would serve in much the same capacity.
It is the right and duty of every person to defend themselves. It is not right, nor should it be legal, that Universities strip the adults who attend them of the inherent and inalienable right of self defense. Nevada CCW laws, in the understanding of negligence and tortfeasor responsibility, provide that if a place insists you be unarmed on your entry and exit that during such a time that you are within those boundaries that the entity who stripped you of your weapon or right to bare that weapon is responsible for your absolute safety. Its a farce to think that this shouldn’t apply to the University just because Glick hides behind the misconceptions of people like you.
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Deborah Lozano is completely out of touch with reality. I am an average guy - 230lb 6′ 2″. If I were that way inclined, sticking a key up my nose or hitting me in the nose with a text book would not disable me it would infuriate me. This advise could very well get a girl killed who may have just lost her wallet. Also for a girl say weighing in at 130 lb to succesfully ward of a surprise attacker almost twice her weight(who, quite possible knows how to handle himself also) would require much more than a few martial arts lessons, I have done several years of boxing and then followed up with several years of martial arts, if were attacked by a 420 lb man at 7′ 3″, I don’t think that training would save me, but a can of pepper spray probably would, if I had time to react, as Irv Miller said it would keep caution at the very front of the mind of the defender.
I whole heartedly agree with Ian’s comments on the ccw holders being able to carry at high school and college, the columbine masacre for example I am sure would have been far short lived if a large number of the faculty were armed and correctly trained as part of obtaining a CCW. The following example also rings true - 2 bank robberies - one in a county where possesion of a concealed weapon is illegal, the robber bursts into to the bank shoots indiscrimantly to make his point, the law abiding citizens here are left defensless , in the other county where ccw are perfectly legal and in fact encouraged, the robber bursts into the bank draws his weapon and in a short few seconds before he has a chance to kill, here’s a chorus of click’s as law abiding citizens are persons, property, home, state and their country.
I say - united we stand, united the good people of this country must stand up and look out for each other and be given the tools to make this country a much safer place for all of us. Ban whatever guns you want, the criminals really do not care about your gun bans, as the charge of murder is a little more serious than the possession of an illegal weapon, if certain people get their way in the upcoming elections this will be reversed and possession of an illegal weapon will be punished harsher than murder.
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Was there a shooting at UNR that I didn’t hear about? Because last time I checked, the main reason for safety concerns was a series of rapes. Only one of them happened on campus - in a parking garage in the middle of the day. The guy had a gun and threatened to kill the girl if she ever told anybody. Not sure if a security camera would help in this case - most tapes are rarely if ever watched.
The second rape occurred in December, when a foreign student was walking at 3am just north of campus. Not only was it off campus, but she was also choked from behind. According to her testimony, she passed out in a few seconds. She’d never make it to any of the “blue light” points on campus, even if they were available at the time.
And then there is Brianna Denison. Having spent the night partying, she was sleeping at her friend’s house when she was attacked. It’s safe to assume she could be “buzzed” and definitely confused and disoriented. I kind of doubt that she’d sleep with her Taser/pepper spray under her pillow… Even then, she’d have to run all the way to UNR campus (her friend’s house was a few blocks away), outrun a larger and stronger man, and find the nearest Blue Light - all at the same time.
So here’s what we have: one rape that involved a gun, one that involved a man choking a girl from behind, and one in which the girl was asleep in a seemingly safe house. Two of the rapes occurred off-campus, and the victim would have to be a martial arts expert to defeat a guy with a gun in the third case. Now, I’m not saying all hope is lost. What I’m saying is that the Blue Light system is quite possibly the most moronic waste of money this school has seen in a while, and that this problem should be addressed by other means.
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