That’s the question a mild-mannered file clerk asked himself when he saw the ad “Stun Gun For Sale.” He had heard about the assaults in and around the building where he worked, but figured he was safe since he was a pretty big fellow.

Nevertheless, when he spotted the “Stun Gun For Sale” advertisement, he decided to check it out and consider buying a weapon. The clerk took a look at all the models and found one he liked. He threaded his belt through the holster opening and dropped the hem of his coat so the whole thing wouldn’t show. He had opted for one of the super powerful mini stun guns–which is so compact that it can fit into a pack of cigarettes. It is reasonable in price and also has enough volts to drop a bad guy in no time. .

A few days later the elevator to his fifth floor offices balked and then stopped. All office workers were instructed to take the stairs as a method of exiting the building. Groups of employees made their way earthward until very few were left.

At the same time someone was waiting to take advantage of a woman in a vulnerable position. He waited at a slightly open door, listening for the sound of a single pair of feet descending the stairs. He lucked up. He heard a woman in high heels slowly making her way down one flight after another. He waited until she had just passed his hiding place before striking. She had time for one good scream before he clapped a hand over her mouth and threatened to break her neck if she wasn’t quiet. Just then, an armed office worker burst through an open door in time to see the woman being dragged off.

When asked later about the event, he simply said, “He looked like he could have killed her. If I hadn’t acted I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life.” So he applied the stun gun to the bad guy’s tattooed neck long enough for him to turn the woman loose. As she escaped, the police were called and when they arrived, the bad guy was still lying on the floor. He was angry about the stun gun being used on him.

Tough.

According to Brandon Jenson of the Transit Union, some bus drivers have been carrying pepper spray for years, though unofficially.

Clarke’s action was spurred by surveillance videos which show Milwaukee County transit employees being attacked while doing their jobs. According to the proposed plan, bus drivers will be equipped with pepper spray and taught other self-defense techniques. Concerns expressed are not only for the drivers but also for passengers who have been injured during attacks aimed at the drivers.

When a street kid came by on a skateboard and attempted to relieve the attorney of the brief case he was not successful. The teenager was unable to wrest the brief case out of his grip quickly enough.

While struggling to maintain his hold with one hand, the attorney used his other hand to get the cell phone stun gun out of its holder on his belt, thumb it to the ON position, and apply a whopping 800,000 volts of stopping power to the kid’s bare wrist.

The kid went down – hard – yelling with the pain. The attorney applied a second stun, kicked him in the slats, recovered his brief case, and kept on walking.

When recounting the tale to his compatriots, the attorney said several things made a big difference in the outcome of the incident.

• He had already made the decision to stand his ground and do the necessary.

• He had already purchased a non lethal weapon to back up his decision.

• He had already taken the time to learn how to use the weapon.

• He had already figured out how to position the weapon on his body in a way that made it easy to reach and easy to use. (Since he carried the brief case in his left hand, the right hand was usually free, so he threaded the carrier on the right side of his belt.)

As in many situations, series of small choices made a big difference in the outcome.

Surveillance videos show increasingly dangerous assaults on bus drivers. Drivers have little protection from the public and are being attacked on the job.

“I want to prevent these acts from happening, not investigate them after they happen,” Sheriff Clarke said. “I want to do everything we can to protect these public transportation employees. Right now they’re kind of helpless, sitting on the bus, trying to drive,” while the public has unfettered access to them.

“They need some self-defense weapons,” Clarke said, “so I’ve offered to train the bus operators in the use of pepper spray. It has to be used in a certain way to prevent the operator from being sprayed in the face as well as he’s trying to defend himself.”

When asked about danger to others on the bus if pepper spray is used, Clarke said there is no real danger, though it may prevent anyone hit with the spray from seeing for a while. However, basic first aid (flushing out the eyes) relieves the discomfort and other symptoms.

He would also like to see some self defense steps taken. Clarke doesn’t feel enough is being done to protect and enclose transit operators. While some don’t like the idea of a protective barrier around the operator because it doesn’t allow for interaction with the passengers, no other form of public transportation allows such access to the operator: airlines, subway systems, Amtrak, and even cabs.

The alternative, according to Clarke, is to get beaten up, as surveillance videos show time and time again.

Many have advocated hazardous duty pay for teachers in high crime areas and in divisions of special education dealing with the most dangerous (or potentially dangerous) students in the entire school district (emotionally handicapped and severely emotionally handicapped).

All too often the parents and other relatives of emotionally unstable students are in no better shape, themselves. Many teachers have been threatened or found that their personal vehicles have been damaged or sabotaged on or near school property.

Beyond that, teachers are routinely assaulted, not to mention insulted, by students and parents. In such dangerous situations, slightly built faculty or staff members may well need additional power to provide safety for themselves and other students.

However, doesn’t it make more sense to arm teachers with non lethal weapons like stun guns which wouldn’t be lethal if stolen and used against other students or staff? The addition of power could make a life or death difference. Non lethal power keeps it safer for everyone involved.

The job is complicated by several factors: the homes or condos are often unoccupied, you don’t know the client, and you are often alone on site. Women are particularly vulnerable when showing a place alone, especially if the client is a male.

Suppose you are headed to an appointment with a male client you don’t know, in a vacant home, and your assistant is unavailable. Take some safety precautions before you walk out the door.

• Tell someone where you are going, who you are going to meet, and your estimated time of return.

• Be sure you have a cell phone with you and that its battery is adequately charged. If you have hands-free capability, so much the better.

• Carry something like a clipboard to hold your papers. The kind that has a storage area underneath the writing surface provides a place to carry writing instruments and other small items.

• Keep your keys within easy reach. Do not put them down and then wander through the property.

• Carry a personal protection device of some sort.

• Consider attaching a pepper spray or Mace container to your key ring.

• Consider wearing a mini stun gun of some sort in a holster or a pocket.

• Practice using your weapon. Figure out how to carry it, retrieve it and keep it within easy reach.

• Give someone a “by when” deadline. If the designated home base person does not hear from you by a given time, that person should call the authorities and start trying to find you.

The best thing to do is to leave if you become uncomfortable. Make an excuse if you must, but leave.

It could be the most important exit of your entire life.

The nature of their business and various work environments makes real estate agents much more susceptible to falling victim to random acts of violence than any private citizen who resides alone. Real estate professionals often spend the majority of their days driving clients, many of whom are complete strangers, around for hours looking at properties and homes for sale. By the nature of their sales profession, they willing enter vacant homes to show clients. It’s in this very setting –an empty home with no one else within sight or earshot—that a violent criminal has total freedom to carry out any violent act imaginable. The only thing that law enforcement can do is show up after a crime has been carried out to investigate, which provides very little help the victim.

All realtors should be encouraged to implement the following safety measures, especially when in the field showing properties:

• Always meet a client at your office initially and document your meeting in some manner.
• Schedule meetings in your office when you know coworkers and other clients are likely to be present. If impossible, at very least arrange to meet your clients in a public place such as a coffee shop or restaurant.
• Acquire your client's name and telephone number, and call to confirm that the telephone number is a real working number not a fake.
• Before leaving your workplace to show homes, notify one or more of your colleagues so that they know where you are going. It’s wise to document on paper your planned route for the day.
• Consider driving your car and having the client drive his/her car alone to the property or home being shown. Many realtors prefer to ride together with their clients so that they can talk on the way and establish report, but taking separate cars remains the safest choice.
• If you feel suspicious about a specific client, enlist the help of a friend or colleague along to a showing to go along with you on a showing.
• Lock all car doors immediately after entering your car and again whenever you leave your car unattended.
• Always carry a cell phone at all times. Many cell phones are set up so that by pressing and holding the "9" button a 911 call is automatically placed.
• Carry pepper spray or a stun gun, both of which can help you keep dangerous dogs at bay, as well as, predators posing as clients.

By adhering to these simple safety precautions and possibly even becoming familiar with a few self-defense tactics, every real estate professional can feel secure in expanding their client base.

Nurses who work in hospitals and other facilities often take care of their patients by themselves; the quiet, lonely shifts some nurses face on a regular basis may place these nurses at risk for attack, especially if they work in high-risk facilities like psychiatric units and prisons, or in hospitals that are in high crime risk areas. Emergency rooms

Clearly, nurses need to be able to protect themselves. Some hospitals have asked that nurses carry cell phones to use in the case of an emergency. Other facilities have implemented alarm systems to use when danger arises. These plans are helpful, but the seconds that lapse in between the moment a nurse summons assistance and an attacker pounces are critical. It may be too late by the time help arrives. If nurses could use devices like TASERs, which emit non-fatal electric charges, the attacker could be subdued without sustaining major injuries. It looks like nurses may have to take matters into their own hands and use protective devices like TASERs to subdue assailants safely.

Most attacks on nurses do not cause death but the injuries sustained by nurses can be severe; documentation indicates that patients have used physical strength, knives and guns to hurt nurses but easily accessible objects like scissors and chairs have also proven to be effective weapons. A nurse trained to use a TASER could interrupt the attack successfully and keep him or herself from serious physical and psychological injury.

Physical and psychological recovery from acts of violence by patients and other attackers is slow, especially if an assailant manages to attack a nurse or other healthcare worker within the confines of that workplace. Sometimes, patients are not the only ones who victimize nurses; co-workers and strangers present in healthcare settings have also been known to take advantage of the seemingly secure environments. Psychological and physical damages often keep victims from their jobs and from their much-needed paychecks. It seems that equipping nurses with TASERs and training them thoroughly could prevent a lot of potential difficulty and pain.

• The two lowest levels of the force continuum ask the security guard merely to make his or her presence known, using verbal and non-verbal communication to send a message to potential or actual intruders.
• Mid-level force requires the guard to use physical restraints or holds, or even chemical aids like pepper spray to control a suspect.
• The highest levels of force, levels five and six, necessitate temporary incapacitation and possibly, deadly force when a suspect is particularly violent and danger appears imminent.

At the top two levels, a self-defense device like the TASER gun can assist a security guard during an extreme crime situation.

Interestingly, batons are mentioned for self-defense purposes rather early in the force continuum. Batons may be used on a violent suspect before the need for chemical agents arises, if a suspect cannot be held by physical moves intended to restrain the suspect. If the situation intensifies and the suspect’s behaviors grow even more violent, it appears that the baton may not be enough to keep the security guard, and the area he or she is protecting, safe. Later in the force continuum, devices like the TASER gun are positively recommended to keep the suspect from becoming even more violent and dangerous.

The use of TASER guns at those higher levels makes perfect sense. After all, TASER guns emit electrical charges that only temporarily incapacitate individuals but they incapacitate them quite thoroughly at the moment of contact. If a suspect is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or in emotional distress, the TASER gun will subdue him or her successfully without causing permanent injury. When deadly force may not be necessary, it simply makes sense to have an option between physical strength, which is finite, and a bullet, which is fatal.

TASER guns also ensure that a suspect is not prematurely punished with a severe injury or death, both of which are possible with firearms. Thanks to the temporary effect of a TASER gun, a suspect will be able to defend themselves to the police when they arrive to assist the security guard. When the police arrive to apprehend the suspect, he or she will have a chance to explain their actions because the effects of a TASER gun are not enduring, unlike that of a deadly bullet.

Security guards put themselves in the face of danger every shift they work. Though their job description does not require them to make arrests, it does ask that the security guards do everything in their power to keep their post criminal-free. Though training for security guards is rigorous and physical fitness is of utmost importance, sometimes a protective device like the TASER gun is what it takes to keep all parties involved safe.

Sadly, the field of private investigation cannot always deliver the glamour such an image promises. Unfortunately, because private investigators are exploring aspects of people’s lives that some think are better left alone, the intrigue and adventure can easily and speedily translate into physical danger and risk. Private investigators are often hired to catch people doing what they shouldn’t be doing and to document the illicit activity accurately. It is safe to assume that these individuals do not want to be discovered; it is also safe to assume that they may become quite agitated if they find out they are being followed and their actions and words recorded. The field of private investigation is dangerous by nature, as many worst-case scenarios indicate.

Some private investigation schools teach their students armed and/or unarmed self-defense. The private investigators at these schools are trained to use guns and firearms and they are definitely encouraged to become knowledgeable in the use of firearms. Similar practices with Air TASERs can prevent an already difficult situation from turning into something much worse for all parties involved.

For example, imagine a large man accused of domestic violence after physically abusing his wife. While seeking to press charges against her husband, the abuse victim hires an attorney who makes a recommendation and gives her the card of a private investigator. The attorney suggests that she hire this private investigator to provide evidence to support her case and keep her safe from her husband. What happens when the accused husband stumbles upon a private investigator video-recording his displays of fury? Easily, that suspect’s anger and violence can transfer to the investigator, putting the investigator’s safety in major risk. Simultaneously, the anger and violence could escalate to a level where the suspect’s wife is also in grave danger as she had initiated the investigation process in the first place.

The aforementioned worst-case scenario is exactly why Air TASERs are on several lists of spy gear. Extreme levels of anger and violence can take the observed men and women into astonishingly powerful psychological places that make a serious assault on a private investigator possible, if not likely. Spy gear in general makes discreet and hidden surveillance of such individuals easier and safer, and spy gear retailers often suggest Air TASERs to their customers as ideal self-defense devices.