Self defense is not only our right, but our responsibility.
In this society, we don't have a police-state mentality where every move we make is supervised and judged by omnipresent authority figures.
Instead, we're expected to take reasonable precautions to stand up for our own rights.
To keep our freedoms, we have the duty to protect ourselves.
But in most environments, it's not proper to carry an obvious weapon or some other dangerous force equalizer.
Can you imagine walking around your office parking lot with a baseball bat on your shoulder or a fighting knife hanging off your belt? While it's appropriate that we're able to bring force to bear against a threat to ourselves or our friends and loved ones, it's usually bad manners to make others uncomfortable by openly displaying weapons.
Not only that, it's bad strategy to, in effect, announce to the world that you're armed.
This helps nobody except the criminals.
And that would be a shame.
So, with that in mind, here are two useful items that double as effective self defense solutions if the need arises.
Sap Gloves For anyone who has some punching or martial arts training, often all that's needed is a way to protect the hands and strengthen the already-formidable punching power.
And that's what sap gloves do for you.
They are simple and unobtrusive, but the knuckles are reinforced with powdered metal.
This gives you the ability to punch at full power without as much risk of damaging your hand as you face bare-handed.
Although these gloves are not as effective as brass knuckles, they're also not illegal in most jurisdictions because they're not as deadly.
They protect your hands more than they damage the criminal, and since they're not considered a deadly weapon, lots of places don't legislate specifically against them the way they do against other items.
Tactical Pens Another great way to increase your ability to protect yourself without making others uncomfortable is by carrying a tactical pen.
Not only is it useful in most office environments (you need a pen, right?), but it won't immediately draw attention to itself as a weapon.
There's a common misconception that tactical pens are to be used as stabbing weapons.
But this is inaccurate.
It's true that you could stab someone with a pen, if you were ruthless and desperate enough.
But for the most part they're simply used as an extension of your fist.
You can strike with the pen a lot more effectively than you can with a hammer-fist technique, for instance.