Perp Spray - For All Our Intruder Needs

During one of our team planning sessions, someone brought up the fact that most of the time there will only be women in one of our RVs (resting riders plus medical and massage crew) AND raised questions about safety. As much as I hated to admit it, they had a point. A small group of tired women in some RV park in the middle of who knows where? In my mind, this just screams, "WELCOME ALL AXE MURDERS AND PERVERTS!"

There was much discussion about how to handle the threat of intruders, including hand to hand combat techniques and what to do if you find yourself engaged in a knife fight. I can tell you right now that after riding many hours in the saddle and being hungry and sleep deprived, we riders are NOT going to be in the mood to deal with any perverts.

Since firearms are not allowed in RAAM (Texas teams should be granted an exception) and this probably holds true for flair guns as well, I thought the next best thing would be bear spray (see footnote at end*).

So my mom and I went into the local sporting goods shop, marched up to the firearms counter, and requested a canister of bear spray. The older gentleman behind the counter took one look at my mom and I and asked in a very helpful manner where and how we planned to use it. I said, "I'll be taking a cross country trip and we will be staying in some parks and you just never know." He knew my main target wasn't a bear. He responded with, "Well, if you have other intended uses, you may want to consider Hornet spray because it's just as effective on bears, critters, and perps." Perps? He was on to me! Perps (e.g. perpetrators) in the form of axe murderers, perverts, and robbers were indeed my target audience! He then proceeded to informed me that Hornet spray has a range of up to 20 feet and a very accurate spray but not to get the foaming kind because it has a much shorter and messier range. He said it also blends in with the camping decor so any unsuspecting perps wouldn't be alarmed.

I smiled, thanked him, handed back the $40 bear spray, and purchased a $4.00 can of RAID Hornet spray.

Perps - we are ready for you. Come and get it if you dare!

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*A few weeks ago I went to buy pepper spray at REI & the sales guy said all they sell is bear spray. I asked what the difference was & he said it was illegal to spray a human with bear spray. I informed him that if some guy is going to jump out of the woods and grab me, I don't care what the law says, he's getting sprayed!