Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

From a link that was sent to me in email. How to make your own Pepper Spray.

I’ve never been sprayed with the stuff directly, although I’ve gotten a face full indirectly a couple times. However, my lovely wife, as part of her training, got a solid blast of it in the face from about three feet away. It does indeed blind you, and it does make breathing a spotty endeavour, but…and this is important…if the bad guy already has a grip on you somewhere he can still continue his melee attack (since he doesnt need to see in order to continue beating on you when he already has a hold of you). If he doesn’t have a grip on you, then he’s going to have a heck of a time finding you what with the blinding and tearing up of the eyes. (Of course, to my way of thining, if the bad guy already has a grip on you then the situation has advanced beyond pepper spray and into things a bit more dangerous.) I like the idea of having a graduated scale of escalating force options and pepper spray gives you that. However, the impression that spraying someone in the face with the stuff will spare you a beating isn’t exactly 100% true.