Personal Safety Packages, a Must for College Students

Fall is just around the corner and now is the time to start organizing your child's backpack for college! Most parents and students pack the typical school supplies and usually never consider a personal safety or self defense product. Adding a pepper spray, mace, stun gun or personal alarm to a college student's backpack can be crucial for their personal safety. Including a stun gun disguised as a magic marker or a pepper spray that looks like lipstick, perfume or a pen, can protect your child. Self defense products such as these, don't look like weapons to others, so no one will know that your child is carrying some protection!

The personal safety of your child is just as important as his or her education. Female as well as male students are sometimes violently confronted by other students or criminals on campus. Your daughter can get sexually assaulted or raped by a rapist and your son can be mugged or attacked also. Statistics show that college women are 4 times more likely to get raped in college than other women. Jealousy and competition fights among males in college are also very common. Self defense products are essential in college environments.

Send your child this Fall with all the tools they need to have an educational and safe season.

Use Self Defense Products if You Take Public Transportation

If you are one of those people who depends on public transportation to go to work or school, you know how scary it can be sometimes. I used to take the fast transit system in Atlanta, GA and knew way back in 1988 that I needed some sort of weapon, I could rely on, for my personal protection. Arriving at my neighborhood station was not really an issue. My dilemma was leaving the station and walking to my car in the dark on winter nights. It was usually parked 2 blocks away from the train station. It didn't take long for me to decide to purchase my first stun gun! I felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It was the first night I walked to my car with a weapon I could rely on. All the fear just rolled off my shoulders and I was able to actually enjoy the fresh air while walking to my car!

Personal security is vital to have whether you take the train or a bus to work. During the night hours, it is even more important. You can carry a stun gun or something as simple as a pepper spray. Citizens can actually even carry citizen tasers now! Whether you are a woman or a man, thieves or criminals will take advantage of the visual disadvantage and assault or steal from you at night. That doesn't mean that you couldn't also be taken advantage of in broad daylight!

Now more than ever, it is very easy to purchase stun guns, pepper sprays, tasers or personal alarms. Thanks to the Internet, there are many websites that offer all kinds of non lethal, self defense products. There are many types of pepper spray, in all shapes and sizes. Pepper spray now, even comes in powder form or disguised as other objects, such as pens or pagers! There are a lot of stun guns to choose from too. They come in different voltages and shapes as well as disguised. Tasers come in different shapes and colors as well.

Don't put off your personal safety. Most non lethal, self defense products, are very reasonably priced and worth spending the money on. Especially when your life could depend on it!

Personal Alarms, Self Defense Products

These panic, siren sounding products are an immediate and universal call for help. They are handy when you are out and about and need help. Personal alarms are either battery powered or air pressured. Some health care and nursing homes use them as well as military and prison guard personnel. Some personal alarms have flashlights and keychains, others have features that allow using them on doors or windows. Many have a clip attached to a cord that can be placed on your wrist or belt. If someone tries to take it from you, it will set off the alarm.

Below are simple rules to follow:

• Make sure the batteries have not expired
• If it is an air pressured alarm, remember to shake occasionally and keep away from heat

Holiday Shopping Safety Tips

Not a year goes by when you don't hear in the news that someone was robbed or assaulted around the Holidays. Most of the time it happens in shopping center or mall parking lots! What you don't hear are suggestions on how to avoid these types of crime. Below are a few safety tips to keep in mind while you go shopping this Holiday season.

Shopping Safety Tips

• Try to go shopping during daylight hours. If you have to shop at night, try taking a friend or relative with you.
• If you go shopping at night or know it will be dark when your done shopping, try to park your car in a well lit area and not behind bushes or where your car is obstructed from plain site.
• Always be aware of your surroundings.
• Avoid wearing expensive jewelry or restraining clothes. You should be comfortable while shopping and able to move quickly if need be.
• Try not to use large amounts of cash, use credit cards or checks if possible.
• Keep your money or credit card in your front pocket instead of a purse or wallet.
• If you carry a wallet or purse, be very aware of possible pick-pockets.
• Try not to do all your shopping on one trip, excessive amounts of shopping bags are very hard to manipulate and keep track of.
• Beware of strangers approaching you for any reason, even if it is to hand you a flyer. At this time of year, "con-artists" may try various methods of distracting you with the intention of taking your money or belongings.
• If it gets dark outside when you are done shopping, try to get an escort or security guard from the store to walk you to your car. If this is not possible carry a self defense product with you and have it ready when you go toward your car.

Keep these safety tips in mind throughout the the whole year and not just while shopping this Holiday season.

Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa Holiday Gifts

Now is the season most people ask themselves, what sort of presents or gifts they should buy for their family and friends. You want to buy something different to surprise your loved ones this Holiday. People get bored with the usual gifts such as clothes, candy, pens, etc. With the exception of children, who mostly just want toys for Christmas, most of us like to get something unique, yet useful.

Most people never consider buying self defense products as a stocking stuffer or Holiday gift. What better way to express your love for someone by giving them something that can protect their life? Particularly, non lethal, self defense products that will protect your loved ones. Non lethal, self defense products come in all shapes, sizes and prices. Below is a list of such self defense weapons by category, that can be purchased for Kwanzaa or Hanukkah or any other season of the year.

Pepper Spray
Probably one of the most popular products for personal defense in the world. Pepper spray can come in stream, spray, foam, gel and fog form. They can be in a simple metal canister, plastic container, leather soft case, or even as a gun shaped item. Some pepper spray is disguised to look like a lipstick container, perfume, pager, baton or even walking weights! Disguised pepper spray present an element of surprise against an attacker.

Personal Alarms
Personal alarms are a great attention getter when you are in danger. They have a very high pitched sound when activated and most have flashlights attached. Some even have a disable pin wrist strap. If someone tries to take it from you, the high pitched alarm will go off. This disable clip can also be used on doors and windows. Attaching it to these objects will alarm you if someone is trying to open a window or door into your home. Personal alarms are also used as medical or panic alarms. This self defense product requires batteries, which are usually included with the purchase.

Stun Devices
Stun devices are becoming more and more popular these days. These self defense weapons work by giving an attacker an electrical shock. The most common of these products are stun guns. But there are also stun batons, stun pens and cell phone stun guns. Recently the general public has also been able to purchase Tasers in addition to stun guns. A citizen air Taser comes in different models such as the Taser C2, X26c and M26c. Stun devices range between 200,000 volts and 3,000,000 volts. Many stun devices include flashlights and alarms. Some run on batteries and others are rechargeable.

Whether you want to give a simple small gift such as a pepper spray or a more elaborate present such as a Taser for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, your gift will surely be appreciated!

Fiesta Puerto Rico Booth

Well we were hoping to take many pictures yesterday of the festival, but the weather did not cooperate. I managed to take a photo of our booth with Susan chowing down... and that was about it. The music and food was great, but not very many people showed up since they predicted a 70% chance of rain. And rained it did, more like pouring buckets throughout the day. We would have to cover the self defense products with plastic and luckily our canopy had extra sides to zip up if we needed it. Susan, the other owner of WomenOnGuard.com, and I had to hold our canopy down, several times, so the wind would not blow it away. We did have 4 small buckets with cement in them to hold it down, but it was not enough! Many booths just closed down shop, but not us, we stayed until 7 PM! Anyhow it was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to participating in more festivals.

Visit Our Booth at Fiesta Puerto Rico

OUTDOOR CULTURAL FESTIVAL & CONCERT
Join the festivities and come say hi at our booth this coming Sunday, the 28th at the CORAL SPRINGS CENTER FOR THE ARTS, in Coral Springs, Florida. The festival starts at 11 AM and runs through 7 PM. Check out our self defense products in person and ask any questions you might have about them. The festival will have food, art, and music outdoors and also indoor concerts. See you there!

Why should walkers, runners and hikers carry pepper spray?

Why not? Women and men should always carry self defense products if they are walking, running or hiking alone.

This statement was not acceptable in a women's message board I posted recently. I contributed to a "Walking" discussion on a well known women's publication, which shall remain anonymous. A particular woman had posted that she was getting ready to go on her walk and was taking her cell phone for safety. I replied to her post that she would be much safer carrying a pepper spray or stun gun instead. Well, a few minutes later, the moderator of the message board for walking women, reprimanded me. She mentioned that I should not scare women and that I should only post the pleasurable things about why they walk. She also mentioned that women should not be constantly worried about their safety while walking and that doing so would make their walks less enjoyable... Of course, I didn't want to be banned from this discussion board, so I did not comment back. But, I can think of many reasons why my comment was necessary and important for walkers, runners and hikers.

A question I would have liked to have asked the walking women's moderator was, 'Do you buckle up when you get in your car to drive?'. This is a very fair question and analogues to the topic in question. Most all of us do buckle and forget about it and continue to drive. Well, the same thing applies while practicing personal safety by carrying a personal spray or self defense spray that you can put on your keychain, belt or in your pocket. It's a habit that you develop and also a good one! You don't drive down the street constantly in fear of an accident, just because you have your seat belt fastened, but you do feel safer knowing that you're buckled up! The same applies to self defense products such as a pepper spray. Walkers, runners and hikers that carry a personal spray, can actually enjoy more of their training routine because they know that they are carrying some sort of personal protection. There are other similar comparisons to using self defense products such as, 'Why wear a helmet while riding your motorcycle?' or 'Why put on knee pads when skating?', etc... All of these personal safety habits we practice, keeps us safer and NO, they do not make our time less enjoyable, on the contrary, it makes us feel protected.

Whether you carry a personal spray, stun gun, personal alarm or even a taser, you will certainly feel more at ease knowing that you have some sort of personal safety!

Woman Left Near Dead After Being Brutally Attacked by Two Homeless People

We at WomenOnGuard.com, decided to make our monthly product donation in support of Jen Hall, a woman who was brutally attacked by two homeless people on August 25, 2008. As you know WomenOnGuard.com donates self defense products to a different cause around the country each month.

On the South Side of Chicago, two homeless people brutally attacked Jen who was out celebrating her 36th birthday. She was repeatedly kicked in the head until she became unconscious. Most medical experts state that nine out of 10 people who experience the type of injuries that Jen did, usually end up brain dead and do not survive at all. Jen did survive. Unfortunately, she did not have medical coverage. She was 1 month away from being eligible for medical insurance through her new employer. Anyone wishing to donate or to check on Jen’s recovery can go to the website TheWalkingMiracle.com.

There has been much support from her family, friends and even the kindness of strangers. Fundraisers have been held and will continue to be held in hopes of alleviating some of the burden from the medical bills that Jen has incurred. We are donating self defense products to the cause, which will be sold at the fundraisers. All proceeds from the sale of these products will go into the charitable trust fund that has been set up for Jen to help offset some of the medical expenses. Jen has made great progress but has a long way to go.

Most women are unsure of where to purchase self defense products. Department stores don’t carry items such as these and gun shops are very intimidating to women. WomenOnGuard.com only carries non-lethal, self defense products. We don’t sell guns or knives on our website. We realize that sometimes when people are defending themselves with a gun, that same gun could actually be turned against them. In this case, it is better to be pepper sprayed or Tasered, than to be shot with a bullet from your own gun.

Check out all our new products, including Steetwise brand products.

Some of you might have noticed that we have quite a few new items in our WomenOnGuard.com website, most of which are Streetwise brand products. We always try to offer the best non-lethal, self defense products the market has to offer. There are new products under the Pepper Spray, Stun Guns, Personal Alarms and Home Protection categories.

One of the categories that stands out is the Pepper Sprays category. We have added new Streetwise brand pepper sprays. The average pepper spray sold contains 10% pepper, whereas the Steetwise brand contains 17% pepper. These defensive sprays also contain a higher SHU (Scoville Heat Unit), which make them even hotter. The Streetwise pepper sprays that contain 17% pepper includes the Pepper Foam and Pepper Pen.

Another category with new StreetWise products is the Stun Guns category. These include one of the smallest AND strongest stun guns available in the world. The Steetwise Small Fry Stun Gun is as small as a cigarette box, yet lets you carry 1,000,000 volts of power in your purse or pocket. Some Small Frys have bright LED flashlights and some are rechargeable. We also carry Streetwise Stun Guns with an Alarm. This is a new feature not found in many other stun guns. An alarm is yet another innovative feature to make your self defense product even safer. In addition to all the stun guns are the Streetwise Stun Batons. Some of these batons come with flashlights, some are expandable to 21 inches and some are rechargeable. Batons are great to keep in the home, replacing that old baseball bat under the bed...

There has been a sizable addition to our Home Protection and Other Products categories as well. Some of which include a couple of handy radio/flashlights that run on solar and/or cranking power. The Solar Radio Flashlight and Dynamo Radio Flashlights are great for when you are in a hurricane, winter storm, when the electricity goes out or to even take camping. WomenOnGuard.com has also added hidden safes to hide your valuables, ceiling alarms that detect intruders from above their head so they are less likely to know they are being noticed. We also included a mailbox notification system that lets you know when your mail has been delivered, which uses a chime and blinking a light.

Browse for new products throughout all our web pages to find that particular item you need!

Real Estates Agents Can Be Easy Targets For Attackers

With all the housing market stories flowing around, WomenOnGuard continues to bring attention to the issues that real estate agents face on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day. As you know, agents are always out and about and show houses to potential buyers all the time. Carrying self defense products is essential for this line of work.

The situation of real estate agents is unique in many ways. Talk about risky jobs, this is definitely one of them and where self defense products might come in handy. First, they usually don't know the person that they will be showing a home to. Second, more often than not, they show it alone without a partner or assistant. And third, many times the homes are unoccupied. These three circumstances can add up to a potentially dangerous job description for real estate agents, who become agents because they consider themselves good sales people and knowledgeable in the housing market. This danger is not very often spoken about, but is always on the minds of the real estate agents, while showing homes.

When the agent is a woman, it is even more of a safety issue. This danger is increased considerably if she is showing a home to a male buyer. As mentioned above, she usually would not know anything about this man, and she would usually show the house to him alone. Showing an empty house or condo is a perfect place for an assailant to commit a crime. They don't have to worry about witnesses and if they actually kill the agent, they don't have to worry about where to leave the body, since an empty house is the perfect place.

Occasionally you will hear in the news of cases where a real estate agent was raped or killed. This is no surprise, considering their unique situation. A real estate agent should always be conscience of their safety when showing homes and should always carry self defense products. This applies to male as well as female real estate agents and in small towns as well as large cities.

My Ammonia Pistol Was Only the Beginning

When I was a teenager and started hanging out with my girl friends at malls, movie theaters, etc., it dawned on all of us that we each needed to have some sort of weapon to protect ourselves.

Back then, I did not know about pepper spray. I was very naive and sheltered by my parents. In the 70's there were no personal computers or Internet, where you can surf and find self defense products. I can't recall who was the genius who mentioned it first or had the brainstorm, but somehow the idea came up for us to use a water pistol and fill it with ammonia! Well, that was the best thing I had ever heard of! What a great idea!

I didn't waste any time, I went to a store that had toys and purchased an orange water pistol. My mother always had ammonia for cleaning the bathrooms, so I poured some of it in the water pistol. I made sure that it would not leak and put it inside my favorite purse. I checked it a few hours later to see if the purse stunk like ammonia, and fortunately it didn't at all.

Well, that was the beginning of my obsession with self defense products! Now that I think more carefully about that great idea, it really was more dangerous than we thought. We really did not know the amount of damage that ammonia could actually cause if you get it in your eyes. It could cause permanent damage! I'm glad neither one of us had to use our ammonia pistols, or we could have been hit with a large law suit!

Later as a working adult, I had to use the subway to go to and from work. I felt I needed to actually purchase a product that was reliable and safe. By this time there was an Internet and I purchased my first Stun Gun from the Internet. Right away I felt safe, especially in the winter months around 6 PM, when I got off the train and had to walk to my car, parked in a huge parking lot, around the train station. I lived in the suburbs, so I had to drive from the station to my house and those walks to my car were very scary at night. My stun gun went anywhere I went and I particularly liked the fact that I could walk with my dog through hiking trails in a nearby park and not worry about getting attacked.

Last year, I heard that there was even a better product on the market and that it was designed with women in mind. In my pursuit to get the latest and greatest out there, as far as self defense products, I purchased what for me, has been the ultimate self defense weapon; the Taser C2. This baby is perfect. I can electrically shock an attacker as far as 15 feet away! This Taser is small, has a LED light to see in the dark and a laser so I don't miss a shot. It also doubles as a stun gun, in case I shock an attacker and another person comes towards me. I never in my wildest dreams, thought I could have a self defense product such as the Taser C2. The good thing about it too, is that the Taser C2 is non lethal and does not cause any permanent damage, unlike my first weapon, the Ammonia Pistol!

First Dates can be Dangerous

It's exciting to go out with a guy for the first time on a date. Remember though that you don't know him well enough to trust him. I've heard of numerous times when dates go VERY bad. I'm talking about when things get out of hand and he wants to get physical but you don't. Sexual assault is unfortunately an event you need to be prepared for in case it happens. Carrying self defense products is one of the best ways to prevent getting raped. You might consider taking w/you some pepper spray or stun gun. Stun guns in particular come in all shapes and sizes. Some are so small that they fit in the palm of your hand. Others are disguised as cell phones or pagers. Pepper sprays come in many different ways too. Some pepper sprays look like rings that you just place on one of your fingers. Other pepper sprays look like a lipstick or perfume container that you can just take out and they think you are just going to touch up! You can carry any of these items in your purse or in the case of the pepper ring, you can wear it on you! There really is no excuse to not be protected and prevent from becoming a victim.