Personal Safety – What’s on Your Key Chain? solid brass key chain

Your first line of personal defense could be as close as your key chain. In many instances you would have your key chain in your hand anyway, leaving or entering your home and coming from or going to your car. We’re going to take a look at what is, or could be, on your key chain to help defend yourself.

The most obvious item are the keys themselves. I’m sure at one time or another you’ve all been told to hold your keys between your fingers to use as a weapon. This can be very effective when going for the eyes or raking them across your attackers face. Couple this with yelling “fire” at the top of your lungs. Sad but true, yelling “fire” is more apt to get a response for help than yelling “rape.” Go figure!

The next item is the Kubotan. This is a metal or hard plastic rod which has either a flat end or a pointed end. It is used to strike the bony areas (center of the chest, head, etc), soft tissue (eyes, throat, groin, etc), or nerve points.  You would want to hold the kubotan and strike your attacker with the end.

Generally, swinging strikes work well against bony areas while soft tissue is more susceptible to jabs. Don’t try to remember specific strikes, react naturally and hit the nearest body part hard! One more way to utilize the kubotan is to hold on to it and swing your keys. Again, when used in this manner, go for the face and eyes.

Now we come to key chains with sharp points on them. Two of the most popular are the Heart Attack and the Wild Kat. Both of these are made of hard plastic. The Heart Attack is heart shaped with a “T” handle which fits between your fingers. (Much like holding your keys as a weapon.

) The Wild Kat is in the shape of a cats head, your fingers go through the eye cutouts and the ears are pointed. Both of these would be used to strike an attacker.

You could also carry an attention getting whistle on your key chain. You could have a good quality “police” whistle or an electronic whistle, just push the button and and it lets loose with an ear piercing shriek. Many times this can be a great deterrent as the bad guys hate the attention these whistles will bring.

The last thing I want to mention is the key chain pepper spray. By far, this seems to be the most popular of the pepper sprays. Most of the key chain models are 1/2 oz in size, have a range of 8-10 ft and will give you approximately 5 one second bursts of pepper spray. These can be very effective for protection.,solid brass key chain